ReactionWhy Hugo Ekitike is not happy with his Liverpool goal tally
The France international opened the scoring in a 5-2 Premier League win over West Ham United with the 16th strike of his debut season at the Reds.
He then claimed the assists for goals by Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo – and took Player of the Match honours – as Arne Slot’s men made it four successive victories.
Ekitike gave his verdict on a pleasing afternoon at Anfield to Liverpoolfc.com post-match, while insisting he is by no means satisfied with his own form despite plenty of plaudits coming his way.
Read the Q&A below…
On it feeling like a good day’s work…
Yeah, I think that was a good win, a good job from the team. Really happy with this win. 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 today.
On the team scoring early and three goals overall in the first half…
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. It has been a long time that we scored a lot of goals in the game, so that’s nice.
On scoring goals from set-pieces and whether the team have been working on them…
Obviously we had some problems at the start of the season. We have been talking all together, working on the pitch at set-pieces. It’s good that today it worked. I think we deserved it because we put a lot of energy in this, so that’s nice.
On West Ham refusing to lie down in the game and that being emblematic of the league…
Every game is difficult, full of great teams, great players. They leave nothing until the end of the game. So, every game we play is always difficult, it’s never an easy game. But we showed that we can win games and we have to keep going.
On scoring the 16th goal of his debut season at Liverpool…
To be honest, I could score more. I’m not that happy! But it’s not only about goals, it’s assists as well – today 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. I’m looking forward to the upcoming games.
On wanting to improve…
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.