Liverpool have endured a difficult season, and summer signing Hugo Ekitike has poked fun at their rivals’ approach to facing Arne Slot’s side
Hugo Ekitike made a tongue-in-cheek dig at Liverpool facing the low block this season.(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Liverpool forward Hugo Ekitike has aimed a jibe at their Premier League opponents following their struggles against low-blocks. The summer signing has doubled down on his frustration with the defensive tactics after making a similar quip during the infancy of his Anfield career.
In a post to Instagram, the former Eintracht Frankfurt forward offered an insight into his life with a series of snaps. One of which featured a joke about low-blocks being a weakness. The picture had the writing: “Every legend has a weakness”, featuring Samson, Achilles and a person captioned, ‘me’ with his weakness being the low-block.
Ekitike previously posted a story to his Instagram and a picture of a person reading a ‘How To’ book with an edit to the book reading: “How to face low block.”
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The Frenchman returned to the squad, after missing Liverpool’s previous two with muscle soreness, and the scoresheet in a 4-1 win over Barnsley in the FA Cup.
Ekitike has proved to be a shrewd signing for the Reds with the 23-year-old netting eight goals in the Premier League, after beating Newcastle United and Manchester United to his signature.
The quip comes after Arne Slot made a surprising remark surrounding Liverpool’s preparations for matches and how their rivals have tinkered with their systems in order to thwart the Premier League champions’ qualities.
He said: “Good win, that’s not performance but result.
“We wanted to go into the next round. Four beautiful goals, shot from outside the box it’s not always easy to unlock a low block for any team in the world but definitely not us.
“You have so many weapons, you have set-pieces, as we see in the Premier League. Shots outside the box, a one-v-one and in the end, we saw with the third individual skill for Curtis, Hugo and Flo.
“How difficult they (Barnsley) made it for us, a gameplan that looks similar to teams coming here.
“I think we’ve played 30 games, for 28 of my pre-match meetings I could throw in the bin.
“Only once or twice the team did what they did the 20 weeks before Arsenal was one of them, Barnsley always plays a 4-3-3 and today decided to go with five which I can completely understand, I’d of done it if I was their manager as well.
“You try to show them what they can expect and what they usually do but they did something different. They made it difficult for us.”
The Dutchman has endured his toughest period in management after Liverpool’s dismal run between September and November derailed their Premier League title defence, as well as threatening their hopes of progressing in the Champions League.
However, they have turned it around with an 11-match unbeaten run to catapult the Reds into the driving seat for qualifying via the top four and within touching distance of an automatic place in the knockout phase of the elite European competition.
