NewsHugo Ekitike interview: 'Reaching a better level', Wirtz connection and France pride
Hugo Ekitike hopes to enhance an excellent start to the season in the weeks and months ahead, as Liverpool move into a busy run of games.
The striker – a summer recruit from Eintracht Frankfurt – began life with the Reds by scoring three times in his first four appearances before the September international break.
Goals against Crystal Palace, AFC Bournemouth and Newcastle United made him the first Liverpool player to net in each of his first three games since Daniel Sturridge 12 years earlier.
Ekitike’s sparkling form earned him a first ever call-up to the France senior squad and he achieved a debut for his country as a second-half substitute versus Ukraine.
Now back on club duty, and with the prolific talents of Alexander Isak added to Arne Slot’s attacking ranks in the interim, Ekitike is excited by how the team can grow.
“I think I adapted well,” he told Liverpoolfc.com during an interview at the AXA Training Centre. “Obviously I still have things to improve, but I think it was a good [start].
“I feel good with the guys, they helped me to adapt here so obviously they make my football easier. And when you play with good players like this, you can improve and you can have success like that. The most important [thing] is to continue to be consistent.
“It’s good to be compared to Sturridge, I know he has been a great, great player here at Liverpool, so it’s good and I want to do my best to do better than him.
“My mindset [is]: play with the best players in the world. It helps you to get better. All together, all the players, we are going to reach even a better level together.”
On the feeling of making his senior bow at international level, he said: “It was a proud moment for me, for my family.
“It’s a big step to go to the national team with France, especially because it’s difficult to get there – it’s a team with a lot of great players, so it means something to go there. So, I’m very proud and very happy with it.”
Ekitike was one of a host of signings completed by Liverpool across the summer transfer window and has so far been joined in the advanced areas of Slot’s starting XI by another, Florian Wirtz.
Asked about forming a connection with the Germany playmaker, Ekitike said: “Flo is a great, great player, he understands football I think as I understand football.
“We speak the same language on the pitch, so it’s kind of easy to have a connection with him. But I think you guys haven’t seen everything yet, better days are coming.
“But obviously the connection is good. We’re almost the same age, same generation, yeah, we talk the same football [language] and even outside football he’s a good guy.”
On the immediate agenda for the No.22 and his teammates is the resumption of the Reds’ Premier League title defence – and the aim to extend a 100 per cent start.
That takes them to Turf Moor to tackle newly promoted Burnley on Sunday afternoon.
The beginning of campaigns in the Champions League and Carabao Cup follow, with Liverpool set to contest seven fixtures by October 4.
“You play football for competition, so being busy with football and competition I think is the best feeling, especially for me,” said Ekitike.
“Personally, that’s what I like, you just think about football; you eat and sleep and think about football, that’s the best feeling. You just can be grateful for that.
“I know two or three [Burnley] players from the youth team in the French national team, and I know they are good players so I’m sure that’s a good team.
“We need to be focused and to play this game 100 per cent together and I think it’s going to be good.”