Forget Ekitike: Chris Sutton wowed by "Liverpool's best player" vs Brighton

[ad_1] Hugo Ekitike scored each targets – together with the quickest of the Premier League season – as Mohamed Salah made an earlier-than-expected return in Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Brighton at Anfield, but it surely was one other Reds star drawing all of the reward.

Liverpool rampant in win over Brighton Cameramen barely had time to shift their focus off Salah, again within the squad after being dropped for his explosive feedback about being “thrown beneath the bus” by the membership, when Ekitike struck after simply 46 seconds.

Salah held talks with Arne Slot on Friday after his midweek Champions League omission and would have anticipated to attend till the second half for an opportunity to redeem himself – a minimum of in most observers’ eyes.

However Joe Gomez’s harm launched him from the bench, the place he was for his fourth successive match sharing the occasional joke with Andy Robertson, halfway by way of the primary half.

It was not the change Slot wished to make with the sport nonetheless evenly poised however one he couldn't keep away from with out creating extra headlines. Nonetheless, set-piece coach Aaron Briggs gave the directions as Slot was in dialog with Dominik Szoboszlai, his new right-back.

And it was the Hungary star, not match-winner Ekitike, who was impressing BBC commentator Chris Sutton, partly attributable to that capability to maneuver into totally different positions.

"I really suppose Szoboszlai has been Liverpool's greatest participant this season. He is so so versatile he has to play in so many positions and he does it effectively."

Dominik Szoboszlai

vs Brighton

Touches

70

Passes (profitable)

53 (49)

Photographs

2

Duels (received)

5 (3)

Salah instantly mixed with Alexis Mac Allister to virtually arrange Ekitike and the Kop broke into Salah’s track earlier than he was concerned once more as Ekitike volleyed large.

Liverpool’s 4-2-3-1 formation, with Florian Wirtz taking part in off the left, doesn't swimsuit Salah because of the extra work-rate required however when from a Brighton counter-attack Szoboszlai made the lung-busting run to snuff out the hazard Salah was not far behind within the tracking-back stakes.

And after the Egypt worldwide pressured Bart Verbruggen into his first save of the second half on the expense of a nook and the unmarked Ekitike headed residence the mantra for the Frenchman was shortly changed with a louder one for Salah, carefully adopted by one other for Slot.

Final weekend Salah, now destined for the Africa Cup of Nations, had urged this might be his final match however talks will proceed between the membership and his representatives in an try and resolve the state of affairs.

He completed the sport paired with Alexander Isak, the British record-signing purchased to ultimately change his weight of targets, however – maybe symptomatic of his season – missed his second by firing over Federico Chiesa’s cross in added time.

<img width="1650" height="826" loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="Slot gives instructions to Salah" data-img-url="https://static0.footballfancastimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/slot-gives-instructions-to-salah.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2" src="https://static0.footballfancastimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/slot-gives-instructions-to-salah.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2"/> Salah applauded all 4 sides on the ultimate whistle, lingering in entrance of the Kop as they sang his reward, and followers will hope that is au revoir and never farewell.

Amid the Salah circus it was simple to neglect the development within the Liverpool’s efficiency, their third win in 5 unbeaten, and the rising prowess of Ekitike.

His first-minute objective, taking a contact earlier than unleashing a shot which was nonetheless rising because it hit the roof of the web, got here because of Yankuba Minteh’s dangerous cross-field clearance headed down by Joe Gomez.

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Minteh and Diego Gomez each had probabilities to equalise however the first half was managed by Liverpool aided by the rising understanding between Wirtz and Mac Allister.

Ekitike continued to pose a risk within the second half however couldn't discover a end to match the standard of his driving run, though Brighton had been changing into extra harmful with Diego Gomez hitting Alisson’s right-hand upright and Brajan Gruda dragging large.

After Ekitike fired over when Mac Allister launched Salah the Egyptian took issues into his personal fingers with the shot which led to the Frenchman’s second objective.