Gary Neville has admitted that Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitike proved his prediction ‘wrong’, with the Frenchman’s explosive 15-goal breakout forcing the pundit into a U-turn.
Hugo Ekitike joined Liverpool from Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2025 summer transfer window.
He’s since gone on to score 15 goals across all competitions and has been the Reds’ primary number nine while Alexander Isak is out injured.
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Now, speaking on The Overlap this week, Neville has admitted he was ‘wrong’ about the Liverpool centre-forward.
He said: “I said eventually [he’d be a success at Liverpool] but not straight away, and I was wrong. He’s been a hit straight away.”
What Arne Slot, Peter Crouch and Alan Shearer think about Hugo Ekitike
When the season began, many likely expected Ekitike to play second fiddle to Isak.
However, even when the Swede was fit, Slot was still using the former Frankfurt man in the primary striker role.
It’s a decision that has been justified by the forward scoring 15 goals and earning much praise.
Within the last few weeks, countless names have praised the Liverpool forward.
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Alan Shearer called Ekitike world class: “I mean the brilliance of Ekitike and Wirtz. I thought particularly, Ekitike, I mean, it hurts even more because Newcastle were in for him obviously, as you know, in the summer.
“But he chose to go to Liverpool, which I get, and that’s fine. But he was the difference. The second goal was world-class, it was a good old fashioned like toe-poke, wasn’t it, when he went down on the left and then toe-poked it with his right foot.”
Arne Slot offered similarly high praise for Ekitike: “His [Ekitike’s] second goal, I don’t know if he knows who he is but Romario who played in Holland and Brazil scored a lot of goals like this. It looked like a Romario goal I have to say.”
Crouch said: “Do you know what Ekitike’s second goal reminded me of? When he burst past him?
“Reminded me of peak Torres at Anfield. You know, like where he slows people down and then bursts like, he kind of slowed him.
“I remember him doing one to Rio [Ferdinand], a couple of times actually, where he slowed him down and then bang gone with the pace and then outside the right foot, reminded me of him.”
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