Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitike scored his 16th goal of the season in the 5-2 Premier League win over West Ham United at Anfield on Saturday afternoon
Hugo Ekitike of Liverpool
Hugo Ekitike has now scored 16 goals for Liverpool this season(Image: Steven Halliwell/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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Hugo Ekitike has claimed he is "not that happy" with his Liverpool goal return despite strengthening his grip as the club's leading scorer this season.
Ekitike registered the 16th goal of his debut campaign when netting the opener in the 5-2 home Premier League win over West Ham United on Saturday afternoon.
The 23-year-old striker, who arrived from Eintracht Frankfurt last summer in a potential £79million deal, also provided assists for Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo to move on to 22 goal contributions for the season.
But the France international believes he still has plenty of scope for improvement having missed good recent chances against Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and Manchester City.
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"To be honest, I could score more," he said. "I’m not that happy! But it’s not only about goals, it’s assists as well – (on Saturday) I think I gave one or two assists.
"As long as I can help the team and be involved, that’s the most important. I want to win so, personally, I’m happy.
"Obviously I can improve, I could score also in the last games, I had good chances. So I have to keep working. I want to be the best version of myself to help the team more, because I know I could help more.
"But it’s always about lessons and getting better. I’ll try in the upcoming games to be even better, score more and be involved more."
Ekitike's strike came from Liverpool keeping the ball alive at a corner, with four of the Reds goals coming either directly or from a second or third passage of play at a set-piece.
"Obviously we had some problems at the start of the season," said the forward of Liverpool's record at dead ball situations. "We have been talking all together, working on the pitch at set-pieces.
"It’s good that it worked. I think we deserved it because we put a lot of energy in this, so that’s nice."
In the first of seven season-defining games in 22 days, Liverpool were 3-0 ahead at half-time but were made to work hard in the second half by a West Ham side fighting to avoid relegation.
And speaking to liverpoolfc.com, Ekitike added: "When you go through those kinds of games and score early, it helps. It helps the team and the fans also. You feel more confident. And obviously going into half-time at 3-0 is nice.
"But they showed that it means nothing because they could come back into the game. We conceded as well but when you concede, you have to be able to score goals and we scored five.
"We have to keep going because it’s going to be a long way until the end of the league. But really happy, I think that was really important."
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