Arne Slot flatly DENIES Hugo Ekitiké report

Arne Slot has denied recent claims about Liverpool handling Hugo Ekitike. The French striker made news this week.

Hugo Ekitike started Tuesday's win over Southampton on the bench. He'd only play for about 40 minutes, in fact - and yet he made a hell of a statement.

Part of that was him scoring the winner, of course. Ekitike found himself on the end of a wonderful move, with Andy Robertson feeding Federico Chiesa with a ball over the top to start it.

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Chiesa took a brilliant first touch before knocking it across the box for Ekitike to slot home. 2-1 Liverpool and, eventually, passage to the next round of the Carabao Cup.

But it was actually what Ekitike did after his goal that stole headlines. He took his shirt off to celebrate, holding it up to the crowd to show off his name on the back.

The celebration was honestly a bit much for a Carabao Cup third-round goal against Championship opposition. It earned him a yellow card, too, which was a massive problem because he'd already had one.

Off Ekitike went and now he's suspended for this weekend's clash with Crystal Palace. Stupid, to say the least.

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Arne Slot denies Hugo Ekitike claims

The Daily Mail reported on Thursday that Liverpool were punishing Ekitike for his stupid sending off. They claim the club will fine him two weeks wages for the dismissal - a relatively common occurrence in football.

However, Arne Slot denies this. He told a press conference on Friday that Ekitike received a talking to but nothing more.

"If disciplined means that I spoke to him then it's disciplined – but I don't think that is disciplined," said Slot.

"Disciplined means a fine – and that he didn't get. So, it wasn't very smart what he did, what he recognised himself immediately straight away, so he said sorry straight away to his teammates.

"He's young. Players of all ages do make mistakes and that's what he did in this situation as well. But we all make mistakes and you're allowed at this club to make a mistake without immediately getting fined or these kind of things."

Honestly, that's the best way to handle something like this. It was silly and something Ekitike almost certainly won't do again.

It wasn't ill-discipline or anything like that, just a player getting carried away. Of course, if it does happen again, things will be different.

But Slot has handled this very well, as you'd expect. Time to move on and get three points without Ekitike at the weekend.

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