Liverpool left back Andy Robertson and manager Arne Slot had agreed to Hugo Echicicke’s unnecessary red card rating. Ekitique was shown two yellow cards in the third round victory of the Carabao Cup against Southampton, with night captain Robertson and head coach slot criticising the French forward. Ekitike, 23, was only on the pitch at halftime in place of Reds’ first half scorer Alexander Isaac.
The Swedish striker led the Premier League champions in the first half before being replaced during the break. Shea Charles leveled out the championship visitors’ scores in the 76th minute, setting a tense finish. However, Ekitique secured three points on a late goal 86 minutes later, after Federico Chiesa’s assist made all his efforts for him. During the celebration he removed his shirt and hugged it to the fans. As a result, he was shown a second yellow card and was already reserved for the opposition when he irritated the ball after admitting the foul in disgruntled.
Robertson claims Liverpool’s summer signature “will not start over,” and then criticizes the Frenchman for winning an unnecessary suspension that would prevent him from playing on his undefeated Premier League trip to Crystal Palace this weekend.
“If he does that again, I would be very surprised,” Robertson told Sky Sports. “Scoring a goal is always emotional and you always get that feeling, but he clearly forgets that he was booked.
“His first one is stupidity, kicking the ball. We know the rules around it. To pick up two stupid bookings, it’s stupid from his part because we miss him on Saturday, but he’s only young and he learns from it.
“I’m happy he scored, but for the last 10 minutes, we’ll be 10 men.
Similarly, manager slot told Sky Sports: “If you don’t have the yellow card yet, I think that’s stupid too. Maybe I’m a little old and a bit old school, but I scored a few goals rather than this level.
“If he had to score the goal like he did tonight, I turned around and walked towards Federico Chiesa and said, ‘It’s all about Federico, great assists, great running. I didn’t have to do a lot.’ Maybe it was me a bit old school.
“It was stupid and not clever in every sense. The good thing was that his teammates helped him.
Ekitike’s fellow striker Isak was also asked about the ITV incident and said, “Yeah, I’m sure he didn’t know he was in yellow at the moment. Sometimes he gets emotional when he scores a goal in that moment. Of course, that’s a shame.”
