Liverpool star sent off for ‘needless and stupid’ goal celebration

Football, as Johan Cruyff once said, is a game you play with your brain. You can try to play without it – but as Hugo Ekitike found out on Wednesday morning (AEST), that will only get you so far.

Ekitike’s brain was either malfunctioning or missing entirely when he came off the bench for Liverpool at half-time of their Carabao Cup tie against Southampton, when he replaced Alexander Isak, his direct positional rival, who had scored just before the break.

Ekitike, 23, has it all: size, speed, strength, vision and technique. But he has some serious work to do between the ears.

Eight minutes after coming on, the lanky Frenchman was yellow-carded for dissent after throwing the ball away in frustration at a decision by the referee. That left him walking a disciplinary tightrope for the remainder of the match.

The problem was ... he forgot.

With scores locked at 1-1 in the dying minutes, after Southampton jagged an equaliser midway through the second half, the Reds retook the lead in the 85th minute through a lovely, flowing move down the right-hand side. Federico Chiesa broke free, but instead of going for goal himself, he unselfishly squared the ball for Ekitike to tap it into an empty net from the edge of the six-yard box and seal a 2-1 victory.

It was only the third round of the Carabao Cup, comfortably the fourth-most important competition that Liverpool is playing this season. It was only against Southampton, who play in the second-tier Championship.

And it wasn’t even a goal that Ekitike created himself – or his first one for the club he joined for an initial $143 million fee from Eintracht Frankfurt during the summer.

And yet, he was still overcome with emotion. So he ran to the corner flag, took off his shirt and paraded his name to the thousands of delighted fans at Anfield – some of whom, no doubt, were also horrified by the realisation that had clearly eluded Ekitike, evidently suffering simultaneously from both a maturity deficit and arrogance surplus.

Since 2004, any player who removes their shirt after scoring a goal has been punished with a mandatory yellow card – a rule that was brought in to clamp down on over-exuberant celebrations, protect jersey sponsors and safeguard against any possibility that a player might make a political, religious or commercial statement via a message inscribed on their undershirts.

Everybody knows this. Ekitike knows this. And he was reminded of it when he turned around and was greeted by a shove from his cranky teammate, Jeremie Frimpong.

Ekitike quickly put his shirt back on, but before he could thread his hands through the armholes, the referee gave him his marching orders.

As a result, Ekitike will be suspended for Liverpool’s Premier League clash this weekend with Crystal Palace – which is a headache for manager Arne Slot since Isak, the club’s record signing from Newcastle, isn’t yet at full match fitness.

“The emotion got the better of me,” Ekitike posted later on his Instagram story. “My apologies.”

In typical blunt Dutch style, Slot did not hide his thoughts or feelings after the match.

“Needless? Yes. And it was stupid,” Slot said.

“The first one [yellow card] was already needless and to a certain extent stupid because you have to control your emotions in a way that does not lead to a yellow card.

“I told him if you score in the Champions League final after beating three defenders and putting the ball in the top corner, I can maybe understand it is all about ‘me’.

“But I am old-fashioned. If I scored a goal like this I would go to Federico Chiesa and say it is all about you – not about me. It was needless and not smart.

“You call it stupid and I call it stupid.”

Ekitike will hopefully learn a valuable lesson as he wallows in his needless stupidity over the next few days.