Jeremie Frimpong was everybody.
As Hugo Ekitike turned around, his red Liverpool shirt still in his hands after he had held it up to the Anfield fans after scoring the winner in a 2-1 Carabao Cup third round victory over Southampton, he was not greeted by smiles and hugs.
Instead, he turned to see Frimpong, his face contorted in frustration. He knew what was coming and Ekitike soon found out, too, as he received a second yellow card for taking his shirt off.
The 23-year-old headed towards the tunnel, past an unimpressed coaching staff, as Liverpool had to see out the game with 10 men. His team-mates survived, but they will now be without Ekitike for this weekend’s trip to Crystal Palace as he serves a one-match suspension.
Jeremie Frimpong looks aghast at Hugo Ekitike taking his shirt off to earn a second yellow card (Sky Sports)
Head coach Arne Slot did not hold back after the final whistle. “It was needless and stupid,” he told reporters afterwards. “I told him if you score in a Champions League final in the 87th minute after outplaying three players and hitting it into the top corner, I can maybe understand that you are like ‘This is all about me’.
“I’m old-fashioned, I’m 47 and I haven’t played at this level but I did score a few goals — and if I had scored a goal like this, I would have turned around and walked up to Federico Chiesa and said: ‘This goal is all about you, not about me’. So needless, not smart. You call it stupid, I call it stupid as well.”
The sending off was compounded by the fact that Ekitike’s first yellow card had been unnecessary — or, as left-back Andy Robertson put it, also down to “stupidity”.
Tussling with Southampton centre-back Nathan Wood, a foul was given against Ekitike. Frustrated by the decision, with both players pulling each other’s shirts, the striker picked the ball up and punched it into the air.
“The first one was already needless and, to a certain extent, stupid because you have to control your emotions,” Slot said. “I know how hard it is if you play No 9. The defender can almost do everything he wants and then when you shirt pull or push him a little bit then you get a free kick against you. It’s always best to control your emotions and if you cannot, do it in a way that does not lead to a yellow card.”
The big question hanging over Anfield as fans trooped home, however, was a simple one: why did Ekitike take his shirt off?
Maybe he did just forget he was on a yellow card, but the celebration itself felt like a statement. Earlier in the evening, Ekitike had watched on from the bench as the British record signing, and fellow summer arrival, Alexander Isak scored his first goal for Liverpool.
It was easy to read Ekitike’s reaction to his 85th-minute winner — his fifth goal in eight games since joining from Eintracht Frankfurt — as him reminding the world he is still around, too.
Ekitike walks past an unimpressed Arne Slot after his dismissal (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Liverpool and their two strikers find themselves in a unique situation. A striker arriving for an initial fee of £69million would ordinarily expect to be the starter; similarly, one joining for £125m wouldn’t expect their main competition to be a player who has been signed in the same window for big money.
No 9’s need a selfish streak. That’s what makes the greatest goalscorers who they are. They have to be self-assured and carry a confidence which borders on arrogance.
Ekitike has displayed that in his general play but also his goal celebrations — like the talking hand gesture in the Community Shield, when speculation over Isak’s arrival was still feverish, or his bow in the Merseyside derby — and dancing to his song post-match.
“Hugo cracks me up, he’s a funny lad,” Southampton manager Will Still, who worked with Ekitike at Reims, told reporters. “We caught up before the game, and he said he’d come on and score, give me a shirt and bugger off, which is exactly what he’s done.
“Fair play to him. We sold him to PSG for £50m, so we knew he’d got a bit about him and he’d scored a lot of goals for us as well. He’s a constant threat, and he’s incredibly annoying to play against.”
Ekitike has had to deal with the noise of the Isak situation from the moment he signed for the club, but instead of responding negatively, he has embraced the challenge. Last night was his first misstep, and a bad one.
The Isak-Ekitike dilemma is one Slot has yet to fully confront. Due to the Swede being in pre-season mode, he has been able to rotate him with Ekitike and point to the need to ease him in gradually.
But the fitter and sharper Isak becomes, the selection headaches will follow. Finding an answer could be one of the biggest challenges of Slot’s season.
Will he play them together? Will Ekitike play on the left? Will he change the system? Either way, both of them will want to be involved in Liverpool’s biggest games from the start. As Ekitike told TNT Sport following the victory against Everton, “It’s the coach’s problem.”
Alexander Isak scores his first Liverpool goal (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Any debate about who would start in the No 9 role at Palace is now redundant, but the more pressing issue for Slot is if, as expected, Isak is unable to complete 90 minutes, who should come on to replace him?
Liverpool have made a habit of scoring late goals this season, but before Isak became a Liverpool player, they struggled when Ekitike was taken off, including against Palace in the Community Shield in August.
For Ekitike, who issued a post-match apology on social media, admitting his emotions got the better of him, it must be a lesson learnt.
His phenomenal start at Anfield is why the No 9 role is such a big discussion topic and why his actions were somewhat understandable. It does not make them excusable, and in trying to make a statement himself, he has given Isak the chance to do the same at Selhurst Park.
(Top photo: Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
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