Isak’s exit leaves room for Ekitike to be Liverpool’s main man
FRANKFURT, Germany — Five was a number that Liverpool wanted to avoid against Eintracht Frankfurt but, rather than suffer a fifth successive defeat in all competitions, Arne Slot’s team ended their losing streak with a 5-1 Champions League victory that answered most of the questions being asked of the Premier League champions.
Most, but not all.
Slot will have been delighted to see £100 million summer signing Florian Wirtz register two assists in the emphatic win, and it was also a night when Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones proved that Liverpool can have a functioning midfield unit, even with so much attacking talent on the pitch.
But while the positives of such a comfortable win to end a four-game losing run are clear, the downside of Liverpool’s performance at Deutsche Bank Park was the 45-minute no-show of Alexander Isak, the £125 million British record signing, who was replaced by substitute Federico Chiesa at halftime, citing a groin issue, after a worryingly ineffective display.
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Slot said last Friday, prior to the 2-1 Premier League defeat against Manchester United at Anfield, that Isak now had no excuses over his form and fitness after a disrupted preseason that saw him barely train while he waited for his move from Newcastle United to happen.
“We can judge him in a fair way from now on,” Slot said just five days ago but, after selecting the Sweden international ahead of Mohamed Salah against Eintracht, the Liverpool head coach will only be grateful to Hugo Ekitike, the £69 million summer arrival from the Frankfurt team, for once again stepping up with a goal while his more celebrated strike partner continues to flounder.
“Alex had to go off because he felt his groin,” Slot told reporters. “Let’s hope it’s not too bad.”
Isak now has one goal in eight appearances and a potential spell on the sidelines ahead, but Ekitike has six goals in 12 and it is the France international who looks like the star act, the main man, or whatever else you want to call the forward who is most likely to deliver when the heat is on. With Liverpool trailing 1-0 following Rasmus Kristensen‘s 26th minute goal, Ekitike was the game-changer with a stunning equalizer nine minutes later.
Just seven seconds elapsed between Andy Robertson playing the ball out of the Liverpool penalty area and the ball hitting the back of the Eintracht net after Ekitike showed incredible pace and poise before scoring past his former club.
It was the finish of a supreme goal scorer and something that Isak can only dream of doing right now. But within four minutes of Ekitike’s goal, Virgil van Dijk‘s header had put Liverpool ahead and they were 3-1 up by halftime thanks to another header from Ibrahima Konaté.
Ekitike’s goal was the catalyst, however, and it transformed a bad night into an excellent one for Liverpool. Second-half goals from Cody Gakpo and Szoboszlai, both created by Wirtz, secured an emphatic winning margin, but had Liverpool scored seven or eight, it would not have flattered Slot’s team.
Eintracht were poor, though, and the gulf in class between the two sides was huge, so while Liverpool will undoubtedly take confidence from the win and the end of their losing run, the real proof of whether they are over their blip will come when they travel to Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday.
But the standard of the opposition will not matter to Liverpool. Slot even suggested that they made it easy for his side with their tactics.
“We were able to press the opponent,” Slot said. “But we were not able to do that in recent games because the ball was always in the air.”
The ball will certainly be in the air at Brentford, a team famed for its use of set pieces, and that is judgment needs to be reserved on Liverpool until then.
If they can withstand what comes at them this weekend, and if Wirtz can translate his performance in Frankfurt to the more demanding arenas of the Premier League, then this victory will be the turning point that Liverpool have been searching for.
Wirtz was given the time and space to pick holes in Eintracht’s defense and he exploited it, but the easy manner in which he was bounced off the ball by Nathaniel Brown prior to the home side’s opener was a glimpse into the problems he has experienced in the Premier League, where he has found the physical demands to be tough.
Time will tell whether Wirtz has come through his difficult period, just as the same applies to Liverpool as a whole.
However, sometimes a win is all that matters, no matter who might be on the receiving end. If coasting to victory in Frankfurt unlocks the door for Slot and his team, then their losing streak will soon be forgotten.
But Liverpool have to build on this win to prove that it wasn’t a false dawn.