Hugo Ekitike Shines in 4-1 Triumph Over Newcastle, Forming Dynamic Duo with Florian Wirtz to Boost Liverpool’s Season

During the match at Anfield, Eddie Howe found himself with three strikers seated just behind him. Despite having invested heavily in two forwards over the summer, Howe opted to start winger Anthony Gordon in the center-forward position. Meanwhile, Alexander Isak, another significant signing, was absent due to injury. Yet, it was the striker on the field—the one Howe had long coveted—who ultimately decided the game.

“I’ve attempted to sign him twice,” Howe admitted on Friday. “He’s a player with a bit of everything: excellent movement, the ability to score with both feet, and exceptional dribbling skills.”

For a brief three-minute span before halftime, the visiting team struggled to contain the French striker. He netted two goals in quick succession, overturning Gordon’s initial score and effectively quelling Newcastle’s momentum and hopes.

Despite Newcastle’s dominance up to that point, the striker’s ruthless efficiency highlighted the difference a top marksman can make. This is precisely why Newcastle pursued Ekitike as a potential replacement for Isak, weeks before Isak’s eventual switch to Liverpool.

That Howe’s men were the better team to that point mattered not. That is what merciless marksmen can do, and that is why Newcastle tried to sign Ekitike as Isak’s replacement six weeks before the Swede’s eventual move to Liverpool.

Hugo Ekitike turned the game around for Liverpool in a sensational performance 

Ekitike and Florian Wirtz lit up Anfield as Liverpool saw off Newcastle in a 4-1 win 

Eddie Howe’s men started well and went ahead but soon relinquished their advantage

In the end, they spent all but £1m of the £125m of the Isak money on Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa, the pair who were left out here. As a game-plan, it worked, at least until Ekitike intervened.

‘He is someone we are going to have to do really, really well against,’ Howe had said. Well, they didn’t.

For Arne Slot, this win was his side’s first from a losing position this season and was capped by Florian Wirtz’s sixth goal in 10 matches in the second half. Isak may be stuck in the stands, but his fellow summer arrivals are the key to unlocking Liverpool’s campaign.

Slot and Howe have shared common ground of late – inconsistency of results apart – and that is a vocal minority of supporters, armed with a keyboard if not a compelling argument, who want change in the dugout. 

In Slot’s case, that view lacks appreciation for the triumph of last season and empathy for the trauma of the summer and the death of Diogo Jota. He deserves time – this season, at least – to process both emotions and new personnel.

For Howe, there are parallels. His summer was not marked by tragedy, but he and his team are still absorbing the loss of Isak. He hinted recently that, after four years in charge, maybe some fans have grown bored. 

It feels as much like a cousin of boredom – complacency. The misplaced notion that another manager would suddenly resolve the issues that exist in a squad, and season, of transition.

The Frenchman stabbed home to get the Reds back on terms after Anthony Gordon’s opener

His second was sharply taken after being given too much room to fire past Nick Pope 

Wirtz tucked away a goal of his own to go with his assist in a superb all-round display

Still, Newcastle ventured here in hope, and that is a rarity bordering on absurdity given they last won in the league at Anfield in 1994. It was a belief fuelled by the energy and spirit of their 1-1 draw at Paris Saint-Germain in midweek.

But the choice of Gordon ahead of Woltemade and Wissa had the warriors bashing their keys. 

With the Scouser as striker this season, Newcastle had yet to win and had scored just once from five matches. 

Still, Gordon was the nuisance he can be through the middle as the visitors refused to let Liverpool breathe during an opening of intent and intensity.

Harvey Barnes had not long cracked the post from a free-kick when Newcastle took a deserved lead in the 36th minute. 

Gordon, speaking in Paris this week, said he had no answer as to why he had not scored from open play in the Premier League in over a year, yet was free-scoring in the Champions League. 

He found a response to that question and his recent critics when he drilled low across Allison in front of The Kop. 

It was a goal that allowed the scoreline to reflect the balance of play, at least to that point. Come half-time, Liverpool led.

Ekitike’s first was about instinct, his second opportunism. The equaliser, on 41 minutes, owed much to the bustling endeavour of Wirtz, who barged between two defenders before squaring to the six-yard area, where Ekitike pounced to apply a one-touch poke beyond Nick Pope. 

Liverpool’s players mobbed Ibrahima Konate after he scored following his father’s death

Ekitike could have had a hat-trick but fired a one-on-one effort wide of Pope’s post 

Two minutes later and, with Malick Thiaw inviting him to shoot from what the defender presumed was a narrow angle, Ekitike’s RSVP was delivered into the bottom corner. 

From moody groans of irritation, Anfield chorused the name of the player who had turned the game. He is also the one, more than any other here, who can turn their season.

Mo Salah then teed up Wirtz for a tidy finish in the 67th minute, and there was a poignant moment for Ibrahima Konate, who netted from close range in stoppage-time in his first game back since the death of his father. 

There were tears for Konate, and Howe must have felt like shedding one too, given the contribution of the player he has courted for so long.