Hugo Ekitike delivered what was arguably his standout display in a Liverpool shirt, scoring twice in the 4-1 victory against Newcastle, which prompted Steven Gerrard to liken him to a club great.
Gerrard, who once formed a lethal partnership with Fernando Torres during his peak years at Anfield, believes the French forward shares key traits with the former Spain striker.
Working as a TNT Sports pundit on Saturday night, Gerrard said: ‘It’s Torres-like. He just gets it out of his feet and it’s that toe poke. He reminds me of Torres, this player, every time I watch him.
‘He’s scoring similar types of goals, where if you give him space in the channel, he’ll run it, he’s too quick, you can’t catch him and he’s deadly.’
Gerrard was pointing to Ekitike’s second strike, which came after Malick Thiaw allowed him too much room on the outside.
Ekitike drove forward before calmly guiding a toe-poke into the far corner beyond Nick Pope with clinical precision.
His opener was a sharp, instinctive finish following intelligent movement, as Florian Wirtz found him inside the box a partnership that is quickly becoming a dangerous one.
After the match, Ekitike spoke to TNT’s pundits and reacted modestly when the Torres comparison was mentioned.
The 23-year-old said: ‘Back in the day, I couldn’t watch the Premier League to be honest, my mum didn’t pay so I couldn’t see!
‘I have watched some clips of YouTube. I will never put myself on that bracket. He was an incredible player.
‘If I reach his level it would be great. I have to keep working.’
Gerrard then added: ‘There are a lot of similarities, pace, power, you can score, you can assist.’
Asked whether he had set himself a goals target for the campaign, Ekitike replied: ‘It’s a hard question, obviously I want to score a lot of goals, I’d love to be the top scorer of the club but I don’t think of a certain number, I just want to be involved in helping the team to win. I also love to give assists, like to Flo (Wirtz).’
Reflecting on the performance, he continued: ‘We came here with confidence,’adding that the result was driven by collective effort: ‘Everybody tonight was running everywhere.’
Torres remains one of Liverpool’s most celebrated forwards, scoring 65 goals in 102 appearances before his controversial move to Chelsea.
Ekitike, signed from Eintracht Frankfurt for £69 million in the summer, has already notched 14 goals across all competitions.
With Alexander Isak sidelined long-term due to a broken leg, responsibility has shifted to the Frenchman and he is proving more than capable of stepping up.
