The striker on lessons learned from his former PSG teammates and why it’s a good thing Arne Slot is on his back
L
isting the glittering array of Hugo Ekitiké’s past and present teammates would make a lesser player blush. The Liverpool striker lined up alongside Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé during his Paris Saint-Germain days, limiting the opportunities for the young striker but providing a great schooling for someone who needs every bit of knowledge to have the edge over his current club’s record signing, Alexander Isak.
Ekitiké will come up against a couple more former colleagues in Omar Marmoush and Gianluigi Donnarumma when Liverpool visit Manchester City on Sunday. The Frenchman will lead the line, with Isak not fit to start and perhaps unable to feature. It will be another chance for Ekitiké to prove his training-ground osmosis has turned him into a top-class forward.
What did he take from Messi? “Maybe like his vision. Sometimes I try to see things earlier, before I receive the ball. [From] Neymar I took some tricks and skills, ball control. I took the runs of Kylian – he could do great runs without the ball. So many things, it is difficult to list. But I definitely took stuff from their game. I try to take things from the players I love. I like to watch and try to add to my game to make me more complete.
