It took Liverpool 95 minutes to break the deadlock and get a result against Burnley. Hugo Ekitike was mostly uninvolved but it was hardly his fault.
The Reds have been exceeding expectations this season in terms of performances and results. It’s a good sign that they have won all their Premier League games so far despite not well enough to justify the scorelines.
But their win at Turf Moor was probably the worst of the bunch. The Reds were bailed out by a 95th-minute penalty that Mo Salah thumped beautifully into the top-right corner.
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Scott Parker designed a solid defensive game plan to deny Liverpool their beloved in-rythm touches in central areas facing the goal. As a result, Hugo Ekitike was basically left on an island full of Burnley defenders and no teammates to link-up with.
In this article, we’ll cover:
What was Hugo Ekitike’s Squawka Score?
Hugo Ekitike Squawka Score: 58%
A 58% on the Squawka Score seems like a low return, and his numbers really weren’t all that impressive for a striker.
But fair play to Burnley who made it difficult for Ekitike and Liverpool to create anything of real danger in the final third all game long. There were a few chances mainly on set pieces, but nothing much other than that Salah’s penalty aside, the Reds accumulated 1.66 xG from 26 attempts – a rather low average of 0.06 xG per shot.
Ekitike ultimately failed to make any sort of impact on the match, but it’s mostly due to the poor collective performance than himself.
The Squawka Score is our proprietary performance rating, combining multiple Opta stats into a single percentage. It benchmarks players against their positional peers, allowing quick comparisons. Learn more about how it works here: https://www.squawka.com/en/news/squawka-score-explained/.
Hugo Ekitike’s usual dynamism
Ekitike had a game like any other in terms of what he offers. He ‘just’ didn’t score, but also didn’t get any good opportunities to do so.
Otherwise, it was business as usual for him. A lot of movement and opening up spaces for others to run into. Though his teammates let him down in that last department and also didn’t activate him as much as they could have.
In the first half, for instance, he recorded 19 touches – but 9 of them came in the first 15 minutes. Just 10 in the following 30′.
The second half ended for him the same way as the first: nine on-ball actions in 25 minutes. He was then replaced by Federico Chiesa in the 72nd minute.
It’s easy to understand what Slot wanted with this substitution (pace and runs in behind). But the fact that he was the first attacking midfielder or forward to leave the pitch seemed unfair. Mo Salah, Cody Gakpo, Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai all had considerably worst and/or more underwhelming performances.
Key creative stats
- 4/4 take-ons completed (Ranked 1st)
- 93% passing accuracy (Ranked 2nd)
Isolation and frustration
Slot’s Liverpool have been very good in creating danger from central areas in the Premier League so far. Ekitike and Wirtz are the keys for this and their link-up was basically non-existant, despite occupying similar areas.
The duo exchanged just three passes at Turf Moor – only against Arsenal did they combine less often this season (twice).
Add to that the fact that Salah and Gakpo spent most of the minutes almost hugging the touchline, and there was no-one else for the Frenchman to lean into.
Ekitike only took two shots, but none of them were good chances. The first one actually looked more like a failed cross attempt, while he forced the second – probably out of frustration. And who could judge him?
Key shooting stats
- 2 shot attempts (Ranked 4th)
- 0.10 expected goals (Ranked 8th)
His reaction when Michael Oliver blew the half-time whistle summed up Liverpool’s performance during the whole 90 minutes. They lacked movement, intensity and dynamism upfront – three traits that the 23-year-old tried to bring every second he was on the pitch.
Still, the Reds got the win in the end and extended their perfect start in the Premier League to four wins from four games. The performances are still worrysome, but the points give Arne Slot a little more peace to try to work things out.