Hugo Ekitike claims he is ‘not happy’ despite convincing Liverpool win West Ham

The Liverpool striker scored once and provided two assists in the 5-2 victory at Anfield on Saturday, but admitted there is one area he feels he could still improve

Hugo Ekitike said he is "not happy" with his goal tally of 16

Hugo Ekitike has admitted he is “not happy” with his excellent debut season at Liverpool, despite the striker closing in on 20 goals for the campaign.

The 23-year-old took his tally to 16 for the Reds in all competitions when he opened the scoring in Saturday’s 5-2 win over West Ham United. It took Ekitike just five minutes to open the scoring, after he stayed alert when a Liverpool corner was partly cleared and fired home from Ryan Gravenberch’s well-weighted pass back into the box.

The French international then set up Alexis Mac Allister’s volley just before half-time to hand the Reds a three-goal advantage, while his pass teed up Cody Gakpo’s 70th-minute strike.

However, Ekitike claimed in jest post-match that he is “not happy”, particularly with his own goal tally, which is now six better than any of his Liverpool team-mates.

“To be honest, I could score more,” Ekitike told LFCTV. “I’m not that happy. But it’s not only about goals, it’s assists as well. Today I think I gave one or two assists.

“As long as I can help the team and be involved, that’s the most important. I want to win so, personally, I’m happy. I’m looking forward to the upcoming games.

Ekitike provided two assists in addition to his early goal(Image: 2026 Liverpool FC)

“Obviously I can improve, I could score also in the last games, I had good chances. So I have to keep working,” he continued.

“I want to be the best version of myself to help the team more, because I know I could help more.

“But it’s always about lessons and getting better. I’ll try in the upcoming games to be even better, score more and be involved more.”

Arne Slot was asked about the Reds’ slow starts to matches ahead of the West Ham fixture, so when Ekitike netted after just five minutes, the Liverpool head coach will have breathed a sigh of relief. It certainly set the tone for a high-scoring affair at Anfield.

“When you go through those kinds of games and score early, it helps. It helps the team and the fans also. You feel more confident.

Ekitike has enjoyed a fantastic first season at Liverpool(Image: AP)

“Obviously, going into half-time at 3-0 is nice. But they [West Ham] showed that it means nothing because they could come back into the game.

“We conceded as well but when you concede, you have to be able to score goals and we scored five. It has been a long time that we scored a lot of goals in the game, so that’s nice.”

Ekitike’s goal was one of three scored from set-pieces - either directly or via a second phase. This is a vast improvement on the start of the campaign, when Liverpool was the league’s lowest scorers from set-pieces in the entire division. That is not down to fortune, but hours of metisolus planning, Ekitike revealed.

“We had some problems at the start of the season. We have been talking all together, working on the pitch at set-pieces.

“It’s good that today it worked. I think we deserved it because we put a lot of energy in this, so that’s nice.”