Hugo Ekastens is a rare example of a footballer who has not benefited from the non -games – hard love has transformed him into a full striker.
This is the view of European football broadcaster Andy Brassell, who represented in detail how early failures explode the striker in Liverpool.
The 23-year-old was probably the only immediate hit of the record gods of £ 446 million this season.
In his first ten appearances under Arne Slot, Ektiten scored five goals, including in the Community Shield and in the Merseyside derby.
It is far from the striker who is cruelly with the nickname “Mr. No Tore” of the German Outlet picture with the nickname “Mr. No Tore” after fighting his early Bundesliga fights last year last year.
However, Liverpools Tay-day conquest by Alexander Isak For a British record, a debate over £ 125 million about his role in the team triggered.
Talksport journalist Brassell has been interested in Ekitikes History since its creation with Reims in Ligue 1.
“Whenever a player comes to the Premier League immediately, you have to be a bit surprised because it is difficult to adapt to the league,” he said.
“From a certain perspective, it is a pretty good place to come from the Bundesliga because it is the same frenetic football. I think it helps in this sense.
“If we look at the form of Ekitics, it is really the second half of the last season afterwards [Omar] Marmoush goes from Eintracht Frankfurt [to Manchester City]that he has to increase.
“He has to increase and really increase its level and take responsibility for leading the team in the attacking sense.
“This is the kind of player and that’s the guy he is.
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“Well, how this works with Alexander Isak in the medium term, I am really interested in seeing, because EKITIS is not just a player who has the tactical and technical properties you want … He is someone who wants to be supported. He wants to transfer responsibility.”
The two strikers do not yet have together in Liverpool, whereby Manager Slot prefers a 4-3-3 system with a central striker, with Isak being preferred to Chelsea on Saturday in the 2-1 defeat.
However, Isak has already played Viktor Gykokes with Arsenals in a first two, and Ekitens also managed this in addition to Marmoush in Frankfurt.
Brassell added: “Ekitics is intelligent and adaptable enough so that it works. But if you return to the beginning of his appearance in professional football, the remarkable thing about him is not only that he can lead the border at such an early age.
“It is not only his clear potential, but it appears in the big games, he scores goals in the big games. They saw that all the time.”
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ISAK competition good for me – Ekikte
Ekitics has already proven that Liverpool fans recently achieved the winner in a 2-1 win against the Carabao Cup against Southampton.
Before the Champions League was defeated against Galatasaray, the Frenchman insisted that the arrival of Isak will help him develop.
In an alternative universe, the couple would have been in Newcastle teammates, with Ekikte rejecting the Toon three times.
The striker rejected Eddie Howe’s approach twice in 2022 to connect with Paris Saint-Germain.
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Ultimately, Newcastle sealed Isak’s Club Record parade to St. James’ Park, and Ekitics moved her progress for Liverpool again last summer.
“He either made a really bad decision or made a really brave alley for PSG because of course he could have been going to Newcastle early in the Eddie Howe -ära, and he decided instead to go to PSG,” Brassell told Talksport.com.
“Now take a look at where you are in the composition of the squad at that time, and especially in the presence of Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar.
“To a certain extent, I flattened my self -confidence a little.”
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Failed transfers Everton and Brentford
Ekitikes Magic at PSG was a catastrophic and scored only three goals of the Ligue 1 in 25 games in his first season in the club.
Everton was appointed among the applicants who were supposed to give a lifeline in August 2023, but Sean Dyche was unable to complete a deal.
He was then offered Brentford, but refused to be used in a deal for Randal Kolo Muani and was frozen.
Even after Messi and Neymar both left, in the first half of 2023-24 he only managed an eight-minute trip without scoring a goal, and was excluded by her Champions League squad by Luis Enrique.
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Ektiten finally fled to Eintracht Frankfurt in February 2024, but lasted two months in Germany.
Brassell continued: “You could see that he was, I don’t know if he was less self -confident or less used to it than he arrived in Frankfurt, but at the beginning he looked rusty and anything but his best.
“People were not immediately impressed by him. I think it’s fair to say when he arrived in the Bundesliga.
“Of course, what worked well for him is that he is not just someone you can judge according to his goals. He is someone who has a very, very good all-round game.
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“He is super intelligent, he uses his body well what he always did because he was pretty young.
“I think if we look back on him in the coming years and say he continues to start in Liverpool and is a really big player for her. I think we could actually look back on this spell at PSG and think: ‘Okay, maybe he knew what he went there.’
“He may not have played, but he could really study among the three of the best forward players in this or another generation and constantly train with them.
“I mean it was something he said about he had to be a real student.”
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“Neymar and Messi were not particularly helpful with young players.”
Despite his limited season, a report by L’Equipe 2022 from L’Equipe claimed that Messi was lovingly referred to with the nickname ‘The Iron Rod’ due to his “wiry framework”.
That seemed to be the extent of her relationship, and Brassell said: “It is a bit like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill 2, where she appears in the temple and refuses to teach her in the temple and she just goes back.
“Finally, he refers to teach her and he is not nice with her; he’s really brutal. When you hear Ekticks talk about his spell at PSG, it sounds a bit that way.
“He said: ‘Well, the thing was with Neymar and Messi, they weren’t particularly helpful with young players. They just did their thing and you just had to watch them.’
“So it is not as if he had been taken under the wing of one of these superstar.
![Ekitic [left] Had to work hard to build Messi's trust](https://talksport.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/09/lionel-messi-psg-celebrates-goal-1027774542.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
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“He had to fight really hard to actually explain knowledge from them. But it is clear that he has something out of it.
“I think this really difficult part of his career, although it looks back and say: ‘Well, he made a mistake there, he stopped his career.’
“You look at how quickly he has adapted to Liverpool. And I think it is clear that what he happened for the first time, in a massive club, an elite club, and it did not work, made it easier for him to adapt to an elite club the second time.
“It is almost as if the first time you don’t pass a driving test and be a better driver who is over the second time than if you had only passed ten lessons for the first time. He has a little know.
“The failures have shaped him a little. He knows that there is a chopping order, and it is sometimes difficult.
“You can’t accept help from Elite players. And so he went to Liverpool there and immediately stood on his own two legs.”
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Ekitics benefits from a little hard love
Ekiti’s attitude since his arrival in Liverpool has proven that he had not affected his trust from his red card against Southampton.
Brassell concluded: “I think he really developed from his time when he was at PSG. You could see how he put it into practice in Frankfurt.
“Of course he still learns, and what happened to Southampton was a mistake that Arne Slot was pretty clear that he couldn’t do it again.
“It feels that Ekismen, we talked about the dynamics between him and Messi and Neymar, especially less with Kylian Mbappe.
“It is clear that he benefits from a little hard love. So I think he has a short leash for him.
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“Because if you think of the moments when he had to stand up for Runs early when he got the team quite quickly, it is difficult for him to get a game, and the boys he hoped that they might train him on the field.
“Then you look at Eintracht Frankfurt when he arrives and it is a really difficult start.
“Of course there are expectations because they have shaped so many players into superstars. So a different kind of expectation than they would get in an absolute elite club, but still expected.
“He manages to deal with it and develop into this type of complete striker.
“Then in Liverpool, where he gets this public rap from Arne Slot over the ankles. Slot is smart enough to know: ‘Right, okay, that’s what he basically reacts to.’
“Regarding how I think, Ekikte will react to setbacks, I think the answer is that it is already in his career.
“He reacted very, very well to setbacks.”