The new number nine for Liverpool is official. Following a brief incident involving himself and Alexander Isak, the forward for Newcastle United, Hugo Ekitike was officially announced as a new addition by the Premier League winners on Wednesday night.
Last week, it was reported that Arne Slot’s team was considering a deal for the Swedish forward worth over £100 million, with Ekitike even being considered as a possible replacement at St. James’ Park. But now that he’s at Anfield, the Eintracht Frankfurt player is trying to establish himself as the team’s captain.
The French talisman becomes one of the most costly strikers in football history in a deal that could total up to £79 million with add-ons, which puts further strain on his shoulders at the age of 23. What, however, persuaded Liverpool’s executives that Ekitike was the best candidate to wear the red shirt alongside players like Florian Wirtz and Mohamed Salah?
Hugo Ektike Outperforms Alexander Isak in the Data Tests for Liverpool
Nearly every striker was blown out of the water by the Frenchman.
Data and analytics are crucial in today’s football environment. Particularly for deals that aren’t too far from the £100 million threshold. Liverpool is well known for its data model, which in previous years identified Andy Robertson, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, and numerous more players as viable targets.
Contact with Ektike and his camp is reported to have been established as early as January, and Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes have had a busy summer. This merely demonstrates the amount of preparatory work required to close these deals.
At the conclusion of the championship-winning season, Slot is rumoured to have reaffirmed his decision to bring Ekitike to Anfield. The remarkable information obtained about the Frenchman was one of the main contributing factors to that call. In the Reds’ data search, the former Paris Saint-Germain attacker was only defeated by two No. 9s.
They did not include Isak. Lewis Steele of the Daily Mail reported that the only two strikers in the world to statistically surpass the 23-year-old were Erling Haaland of Manchester City and Kylian Mbappe, Ektike’s former colleague at PSG.
Even though Ekitike scored a remarkable 23 Premier League goals in just 34 games the previous season, he excelled in other ways and won the match. The new recruit will now go with his new teammates on their preseason trip, which should thrill the Anfield supporters.
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