‘Why I took him off…’ – Arne Slot explains his reasons for withdrawing Hugo Ekitike at Wembley | OneFootball

Hugo Ekitike had a Liverpool debut to remember as he scored inside five minutes of the Community Shield on Sunday, and it may have seemed surprising that Arne Slot substituted him during the second half at Wembley.

The summer signing from Eintracht Frankfurt curled an exquisite shot past Dean Henderson in the early exchanges against Crystal Palace and linked up brilliantly with fellow newcomer Florian Wirtz, although he was withdrawn in the 71st minute with the Reds 2-1 to the good.

In his absence, the Eagles equalised and then went on to win the penalty shootout, in which the Frenchman’s finishing skills were missed (along with three spot kicks from the Merseysiders).

Slot explains why he subbed off Ekitike

Slot was full of praise for Ekitike in his post-match press conference and attributed the decision to substitute him to game management ahead of the start of the Premier League season against Bournemouth on Friday, particularly with Liverpool currently light on squad depth in attack.

The Reds’ head coach said (via liverpoolfc.com): “He had a good impact but he is also an example of a player who came, I think, one-and-a-half to two weeks ago, at the end of our Asian tour.

“For me, with only three or four days before the Friday game, it wouldn’t be smart to play him for 90 minutes because… of course we have Federico [Chiesa] but he has not been on the Asian tour as well, so there’s not a lot to replace him with.

“If he gets an injury at this moment of time, that would be a big risk for the Bournemouth, Newcastle and Arsenal games. That’s why I took him off but he had a good game today, that’s for sure.”

(Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Slot sensibly managing Ekitike’s minutes ahead of Premier League kick-off

Slot’s comments suggest that he’d have liked to persist with Ekitike for the remainder of the afternoon given how the debutant had been performing, but with attacking depth being significantly reduced this summer, the Dutchman also had a firm eye on our upcoming Premier League games.

The 23-year-old’s display at Wembley shows that he’s capable of making an immediate impact at Liverpool, and until such time that another striker is signed, we’ll be leaning heavily upon him to keep excelling for the Reds.

That the head coach turned to Alexis Mac Allister rather than Chiesa off the bench to replace the Frenchman will only add fuel to rumours of an exit for the former Juventus star, and if he were to depart, we’d then have just three experienced forwards in Ekitike, Mo Salah and Cody Gakpo.

Youngsters like Rio Ngumoha, Ben Doak and Jayden Danns have proven capable of stepping up when called upon, but Slot may be reluctant to rely too heavily on the teenagers and instead beseech the Anfield hierarchy to accelerate their pursuit of Alexander Isak.

As much as we’d have loved for our new number 22 to play the full 90 minutes yesterday, ultimately the Liverpool boss sensibly looked at the bigger picture, and hopefully our £69m signing can be just as impactful throughout the Premier League campaign as he was at Wembley on Sunday.