Liverpool created next to nothing against relegation-threatened Leeds on Saturday through a first half where the travelling Reds looked more concerned with not losing to the newly promoted side than they
did in trying to beat them. It made for some downright dire football to watch.
When you have two sides with a massive talent gap, though, one of the best squads in Europe against, well, a newly promoted side, it’s not a shock that conservative, borderline anti-football eventually pays off as it did when Leeds passed the ball straight to Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitike.
Ekitike, one of the few bright spots in a Liverpool side that hasn’t looked at its best for the entire calendar year of 2025 and now appears in the midst of crisis after a breakdown in the relationship between manager Arne Slot and star Mohamed Salah, didn’t make a mistake with Leeds’ gift.
“I was a bit annoyed because as a striker you want to be involved and scoring goals,” said Ekitike, who despite being one of the Reds’ best this season has found goals harder to come by of late. “I just kept working. I’m glad that today I could score for the team. I just want more—especially to win.”
Winning has been hard to come by of late, though along with more conservative shift over the past week Liverpool at least haven’t lost in three games, with the high point in that stretch a victory over West Ham side that have fallen to 18th in the table for the currently 9th-place Reds.
The other two games, both draws, were against against newly promoted sides. Saturday at Leeds involved a stunning collapse, the Reds throwing away two leads and the game ending 3-3. Sunderland the game before saw a stoppage time would-be Black Cats winner cleared off the line.
All of which is to say that while there has been a slight uptick in form to coincide with the negative shift in approach and the controversial benching of Salah that has fuelled the current crisis, describing this past week as a significant resurgence would seem a rather large stretch.
“Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but at the moment and even tomorrow if we want to start to win every game we play you have to work as a team and be together,” Ekitike added of the moment they find themselves in. “That’s what is going to make us have a great season.”
