Giant Ekichike misses a trip to Liverpool’s Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday after being sent off for taking off his shirt following the winner against Southampton
Arne Slot was critical of Liverpool’s Forward Hugo Ekitike after the late red card that removed the shirt against Southampton. French forward Ekitique replaced Alexander Isaac at halftime, knocking him home, then chasing the winner with five minutes remaining before taking off his shirt as he ran towards the corner flag.
Referee Thomas Bramal quickly showed Ekitique his second yellow, and the forward will miss out on Liverpool’s Premier League trip to Crystal Palace on Saturday. Slot leaves behind a headache after the Dutch admits Isaac is not ready to play for 90 minutes.
Slot was impressed by his striker and branded his actions as “silly.” “The first (yellow card) was already unnecessary and somewhat stupid because they needed to control their emotions. If you play in the Premier League and are nine, the defender can do almost everything he wants.
read more: Hugo Ekichike issues an apology to Liverpool fans after Southampton’s red card winsread more: Hugo Ekichike, who Liverpool’s teammate warned after “silly” red card
“But it’s always best to control your emotions. If you can’t, you can do it in a way that doesn’t lead to a yellow card. So when you get the red card against Everton, you can show your emotions, so I think I always said that it’s stupid, but if it leads to yellow or red, it’s stupid to some degree.
“I then told him that if you beat three players and hit the top corner and score in the Champions League final in the 87th minute, you could say, ‘That’s me.’ myself. ‘
“So, yeah, it’s unnecessary, not clever, you call it stupid and I call it stupid.”
This was an opinion reflected by Ekitique’s teammate Andy Robertson. The Scots captained the Reds in Virgil van Dyke’s absence and gave a dim view of the exploitation of the French people.
“Scoring a goal is always emotional and I think you always get that feeling,” he said. “But he clearly just forgot that he was booked.”
“His first is stupidity, he kicks the ball. We know the rules around it.
“It’s stupid from his part, but he’s only young and he learns from it. I’m happy he scored, but it’s a little harder to lose to 10 men in the last 10 minutes.
Ekitike went to Instagram after the game to apologise for his red card. He states:
“Thank you to the fans for always supporting my teammates for securing this victory.”
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