By IAN HERBERT, DEPUTY CHIEF SPORTS WRITER
Published: 09:08 EST, 14 December 2025 | Updated: 09:08 EST, 14 December 2025
The artifice and choreography of Mo Salah’s return to the fold on Saturday – the pose held in front of the Kop and beaming smile in the mixed zone, as if his public disrespect of his manager had never happened – made you give thanks for the beautiful spontaneity of Hugo Ekitike.
There was a rawness, fearlessness and unpredictability in the young striker’s performance against Brighton which eclipsed Salah and reminded us that football is in constant flux: always moving on, allowing no player a divine right to a starting place, whatever sense of entitlement he might feel.
While Salah’s touches and finishing in the moments of big opportunity were five out of ten, Ekitike was iridescent - demonstrating that what seemed to have been Arne Slot’s deliberate strategy to get him in more central and high-value shooting positions might well pay a dividend in the weeks ahead.
In his 14 Premier League appearances before this, Ekitike’s shooting opportunities had been spread more laterally, with tight-angled efforts and a high share of low xG shots. Here was Anfield’s first sight of him as a player in Ian Rush’s old striker’s corridor.
Slot’s observations about the 23-year-old after the 2-0 win were confined to the way he’s physically adapting to the Premier League. He pointed out that the forward is now far more robust - equipped to last longer before the cramping which still saw him depart after 78 minutes on Saturday, with two goals to his name. ‘If you cannot be intense, it is so hard to win a game of football in this league. I can see progress,’ he said of him.
But what Liverpool could not have known when signing him from Eintracht Frankfurt was the supreme self-confidence and mental adaptation to the pressure that came with the move.
While Salah’s touches and finishing in the moments of big opportunity were five out of ten, Ekitike was iridescent after he was moved to more central and high-value shooting positions
What Liverpool could not have known when signing Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt was the supreme self-confidence and mental adaptation to the pressure that came with the move
The artifice of Salah’s return to the fold on Saturday – as if his public disrespect of his manager had never happened – made you give thanks for the beautiful spontaneity of Hugo Ekitike
His quick-footed, tippy-tappy style was something they saw fitting in with the rapid interchange of passing between forwards which they wanted – something they have seen and coveted in Paris Saint Germain’s play. The French club made a big impression on Liverpool last season. But when Ekitike made a big move in 2023, signing for PSG rather than Newcastle, who also wanted him last summer, it didn’t work out.
Slot’s wish for a player with a high technical component, to exchange possession under pressure in the small pockets, was borne of Liverpool’s awareness, in the second half of last season, that they were finding it hard to deal with the increasingly low blocks of the less ambitious sides. Narrow wins at home to West Ham and away to Leicester and Nottingham Forest shaped Slot’s sense that they needed new ways of finding more chances.
Ekitike’s ice-cold finish in the game’s first minute and easy rise to head in Salah’s corner were a product of his being far more consistently present in the box. He had 12 touches there, three times more than his games against Bournemouth, Newcastle and Brentford.
Slot will also have taken encouragement from his combination play with Wirtz, who is evolving physically, too. The German can still be too easily knocked out of possession at times, but his own data on Saturday - nine of his 12 duels won and more recoveries than any outfield player - tell his story.
While Slot could declare with some confidence that Salah will be back in the fold after the African Cup of Nations next month, history tells us that these dramas don’t end well for Liverpool superstars who are beginning to ‘melt’ – as Sir Alex Ferguson used to call the inevitable ageing process.
Another of Liverpool’s greatest, Roger Hunt, made huge waves by stripping off his shirt in visible anger when substituted by Bill Shankly during a Fifth Round FA Cup tie in March 1969. He didn’t last at the club much longer. Shankly promptly built a new, youthful title-winning team for the 1970s.
Ekitike offers more of the same new generation promise. His only blip has been getting dismissed for his goal celebration when on a yellow card against Southampton in September. Andy Robertson had a firm word, the young man apologised and hasn’t looked back. Though Salah appears to have mislaid the memo, that’s the way they’ve always done things at Liverpool.