![\"Hugo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_Hugo-Ekitike.jpg\")
Hugo Ekitike has been told he may be forced to be Alexander Isak’s understudy at Liverpool(Image: (Photo by Richard Sellers\/Sportsphoto\/Allstar via Getty Images))<\/p>\nArne Slot opted to name Alexander Isak in his Liverpool starting XI to face Atletico Madrid with Hugo Ekitike on the bench as a resultHugo Ekitike has been told he may be forced to be Alexander Isak’s understudy at Liverpool(Image: (Photo by Richard Sellers\/Sportsphoto\/Allstar via Getty Images))<\/p>\n
Hugo Ekitike has been sent a brutal Liverpool message after Arne Slot opted to name record-signing Alexander Isak in his starting XI for the Champions League<\/a> clash against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The hosts got off to a lightening start at Anfield<\/a> with Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah<\/a> both on target in the opening five minutes. The former opened the scoring when he diverted Salah’s free-kick towards goal which left Jan Oblak wrong-footed.<\/p>\n Salah then grabbed his third of the season almost immediately after that with a left-footed finish following an incisive ball into the Atletico penalty box by Ryan Gravenberch.<\/a> Isak was not involved in either goal and unsurprisingly his first few touches were a little off.<\/p>\n Including pre-season, this is Isak’s first start in nearly four months but Ally McCoist expects him to feature regularly with Ekitike’s minutes impacted as a result. When asked by commentary partner Darren Fletcher if the latter was unfortunate to be on the bench, McCoist brutally said: “He better get used to it.”<\/p>\n Over the coming weeks, Ekitike will almost certainly play more than Isak though with Slot’s comments ahead of the Atletico game suggesting exactly that.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is definitely a chance, because he is in the squad,\u201d Slot said on Isak possibly making his debut during his pre-match press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cThen there is a chance to play. Normally I would say 99.9 per cent sure, but I can say it\u2019s 100 per cent sure he will not play 90 minutes. But he is part of the squad.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is already a Champions League<\/a> game to look forward to but if people look forward to his playing time, that could mean that could happen tomorrow as well.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only thing that is sure is he will not play 90, and all the rest you will see tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the October international break, Isak could well be the undisputed first-choice but with so many games to come this season, Ekitike will almost certainly receive his fair share of game time.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n For the latest news and breaking news, visit liverpoolecho.co.uk\/all-about\/liverpool-fc<\/a>. Get all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you.<\/p>\n Follow us on Twitter<\/a> @\u200cLivEchoLFC – the official Liverpool ECHO LFC Twitter account – for all the latest LFC news as it happens in real time.<\/p>\n We’re also on Facebook<\/a>\/LiverpoolEchoLFC – your must-see LFC news, features, videos and pictures throughout the day from the Liverpool ECHO.<\/p>\n Listen to our podcasts by searching for ‘Blood Red’ wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n Sign up for one of the Liverpool Echo’s free daily and weekly newsletters on Liverpool FC<\/a> by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arne Slot opted to name Alexander Isak in his Liverpool starting XI to face Atletico Madrid with Hugo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[18765,16415,3450,403,99],"class_list":["post-164337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-alexander-isak","tag-hugo-ekitike","tag-liverpool","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}