The new number 9…
- Thread starter Buddha
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
I can name a few posters who are going to have gittens if we don’t sign loads of players in the summer!!!
ME!
View: https://x.com/OptaAnalyst/status/1912530466495774756
Ekitiké has 14 goals and five assists in 28 Bundesliga games this season (26 starts), with 21 goals and nine assists in all competitions.
Only three players have more than his 19 goal involvements in the Bundesliga, one of which is former teammate Omar Marmoush.
He struck up a potent partnership with Marmoush, though the Egyptian left Frankfurt for Manchester City in January. That had the potential to halt Ekitiké’s progress, with Marmoush having assisted five of the Frenchman’s 12 goals in the campaign to that point.
Prior to Marmoush’s departure, Ekitiké averaged 0.62 non-penalty goals per 90 minutes from 0.57 non-penalty expected goals (np xG), and 1.9 chances created. Since his strike partner’s exit, his np goals per 90 have dropped slightly to 0.53, though his np xG has gone up to 0.67, which is likely because Ekitiké is now the main man up front, so more chances are coming to him rather than being shared with Marmoush. That lack of a proper partner in attack has seen his chances created per 90 drop to 1.3, though.
Ekitiké has the highest xG (19.5) and np xG (17.1) in the Bundesliga this season. Apart from Borussia Dortmund’s Serhou Guirassy (16.5), no other Bundesliga player is even within 5.5 np xG of Ekitiké.
Across Europe’s top five leagues, only Robert Lewandowski (21.0) and Erling Haaland (18.5) have more np xG than Ekitiké.
Despite a very decent return of 14 Bundesliga goals in his first full season in the competition, it could be argued that he should have scored more. Of players in Europe’s top five leagues, only Real Betis’ Abde Ezzalzouli has underperformed his total xG by a larger margin (-6.0 – 1 goal from 7.0 xG) than Ekitiké (-5.5). Even taking penalties away, he is underperforming his non-penalty xG by 4.1 (13 np goals from 17.1 np xG).
That could lead some to question his finishing ability. He has a 13.9% shot conversion rate in the Bundesliga, which only goes up to 16.7% in the Europa League.
However, as anyone who has seen even a little bit of football will know, a striker who misses a lot of chances is usually more cause for optimism than a striker who isn’t even getting the chances to miss in the first place. At 22 years old, Ekitiké has plenty of time to improve his finishing.
Comparisons have been made with Newcastle star Alexander Isak due to his height, slim frame and deft touch. When Isak was roughly the age Ekitiké is now, he was at Real Sociedad, and he scored just six goals from 32 games in La Liga in 2021-22 and had a shot conversion rate of just 8.2%. The Swede also scored two of his goals from the penalty spot, and so had just four non-penalty goals from 8.2 np xG, an underperformance of 4.2.
Isak has since developed into one of the best strikers in Europe, and this season has 20 Premier League goals with a shot conversion of a whopping 26.0%, and 18 np goals from 15.1 np xG, an overperformance of 3.0. This is not to say that Ekitiké will follow the same trajectory, but it is an example of why you shouldn’t compare a 22-year-old player to the finished article.
So, aside from goals, what sort of player is Ekitiké?
Despite standing at 6-foot-3 he’s not the most physical. Rather than grappling with defenders, Ekitiké would rather find space and make runs into the channels. He is fleet-footed and capable of leading the line, but he likes to drift wide or drop deep and link up with others. His best football has arguably come when playing with a strike partner, though, like Marmoush, while he also mostly played in a front two at Reims.
For a tall player, Ekitiké is not much of a menace in the air. Only one of his 21 goals this season has been from a header, having attempted 13 headed shots. He is, however, good with both feet, scoring six times with his weaker left foot.
As with many modern forwards, Ekitiké likes to create as well as score. Only seven players have created more open-play chances than his 39 in the Bundesliga this season.
He also likes to carry the ball with purpose. His 35 shot-ending carries are the most in the Bundesliga this season. In fact, not including Marmoush (30), no other player in Germany’s top flight has more than 25 (Jamal Musiala), while only three players have more than Ekitiké’s 15 carries ending with a chance being created.
Ekitiké has recorded 18 secondary chances created – providing the pass to the player who then creates a chance – and has four secondary assists (when the shot is scored), the joint most for Eintracht along with midfielder Farès Chaïbi.
Some of his creativity comes from his willingness to lay the ball off to a teammate rather than always taking it himself and heading for goal. It’s one of Ekitiké’s favourite options when playing with his back to goal, often cushioning to a teammate before making a run for either a return pass in behind or to create space for others. His 61 layoffs are the joint-10th most in the Bundesliga this season, with his 52 successful layoffs the joint-12th most.
Only five players have played a part in more open-play shot-ending sequences in the Bundesliga this season, all of whom play for either Bayern Munich or Bayer Leverkusen. He is above Harry Kane in this list despite having only played 18 more minutes than the Bayern striker.
He does his fair share of work out of possession too, with only 11 players in the Bundesliga having won possession in the opposition’s final third more often than Ekitiké (17), which is impressive given Eintracht aren’t a particularly high-pressing team. Only six Bundesliga sides have made fewer than their 189 high turnovers this season.
Ekitiké’s performance against Heidenheim at the weekend showed how involved he can be in key moments a game, with a secondary assist for the first goal when he fed Chaïbi down the left channel to cross to Jean-Mattéo Bahoya to score, an assist for the second when he got ahead of a defender to lay the ball off to Robin Koch to fire in, and a clever off-ball run to tap in the third from Nathaniel Brown’s cross.
He is still a little rough around the edges, which you’d expect for a 22-year-old. He can sometimes try flicks or passes that simply aren’t on when keeping it simple will do, but it feels as though the things he can improve on, such as finishing and decision-making, are things players generally do get better at with experience.
It is especially impressive that Ekitiké gets so many chances without ever coming across as a selfish player. Whether the time is right this summer for him to try again at another European giant is unclear, but he is certainly someone who should be on the radar of all of them.
Fire Eintracht to Europa League glory, and there will be little to stop this latest hype train.
How Hugo Ekitike became one of Europe's hottest young strikers
JAMES SHARPE: It took Hugo Ekitike just six minutes to show the rest of Europe why he's one of the most wanted young strikers on the continent.
Ekitike has 21 goals so far this season, firing Eintracht Frankfurt to third in the Bundesliga and looking to cause Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou yet more headaches this evening as their Europa League quarter-final hangs in the balance.
He has carried the lone ranger mantle since Omar Marmoush, who he called his ‘partner in crime’, joined Manchester City for nearly £60million from Frankfurt in January.
‘He is a complete striker,’ Christopher Michel, Frankfurt reporter at Absolut Fussball told Mail Sport. ‘He’s fast, he can shoot with both feet. He can head the ball well. He’s brilliant with his back to goal. He’s tall. He can dribble. He provides assists. He can be a playmaker. He has the potential to be one of the best strikers in Europe. I even think he has more talent than Omar Marmoush.’
It’s no surprise, then, that the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool are both said to be interested in a move for Ekitike this summer but, if they want him, they will have to fork out the best part of £85m.
‘Ekitike loves being in the limelight,’ Manni Sedlbauer, German football reporter at Sport1 told Mail Sport. ‘He’s very self-confident. He plans unusual celebrations, wears his trousers low and drives a Lamborghini.
‘He’s always wanted to be the best and has worked hard for it. He belongs to this new generation of strikers.’
Ekitike came through the ranks at his hometown club Reims, signing his first professional contract in 2020 aged 17. Coaches saw the talent in him early on.
‘We saw huge potential, something natural, with a feeling for scoring a goal,’ said his Reims reserve team coach Franck Chalencon. ‘He’s a very clever player, which saw him adapt and understand the expectations of professional football. It’s very rare he plays a game without creating a chance himself.’
Before he became a first-team regular, he joined Danish Superliga side Vejle on loan in January 2021 – and his new team-mates were in for a shock when they saw their new signing dancing around the dressing room any time a song came on.
Ekitike struggled early on with the physical demands of the Danish league and needed French team-mate Kevin Yamga to help him with the language barrier.
‘I remember a humble and hard-working kid,’ Jacob Kruger, Vejle’s sporting director at the time, told Mail Sport. ‘He had difficulties at the beginning because it was his first time out of France, he spoke very little English at the time, and he needed to adapt to Danish football.
‘His club was quite angry that he didn’t play and I had them on the phone several times but I never had any complaints from Hugo. He kept working hard and just waiting for his chance.
‘There was one game where the coach changed almost the whole team for a cup game because we were close to relegation but Hugo still wasn’t in the starting line-up. His club was totally p***ed!
‘Hugo didn’t lose faith in himself, kept working hard and when he got his chance he took it.’
Ekitike scored three goals in eight games during the league’s relegation round to keep Vejle in the division, including a brace against rivals AC Horsens as well as two assists in a crucial game against Sonderjyske.
‘If we won, we avoided relegation,’ Jacob Schoop, his captain at Vejle, told the BBC. ‘Hugo was unbelievable in that game. That's the sign of a big-game player - to step up and find that bit extra.’
‘He was a top, top talent,’ added Kruger. ‘We could all see that. He had some extraordinary skills, with his pace, technique, mentality and was a good finisher. You could see he had the whole package but it would be a little too smart to say I saw it all and he would end up like this!’
On his return to Reims for the 2021-22 season, he banged in 10 goals in 24 Ligue 1 appearances – performances that got Newcastle’s whiskers twitching.
‘There is something very special about him,’ said his Reims manager Oscar Garcia that season. ‘He’s young, and he has the quality to become a very good player.’
Newcastle tried to sign him that January, the first window after the Saudi takeover, before nearly getting the job done in the summer.
The bright lights of Paris turned his head and he moved to the French giants, first on loan, then permanently. Ekitike made 25 appearances in Ligue 1 as he won the title alongside Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
He struggled to make his mark, though. Former PSG midfielder Eric Rabesandratana slammed his ‘mental weakness’ and claimed his attitude didn’t ‘correspond at all to what you expect from him as a young person, and especially one who should impose himself at PSG’.
Ekitike was shipped out on loan to Frankfurt in February last year before making the move permanent in April. That’s where the star began to shine, both on the pitch and off it. Goals, glitz and glamour.
‘He’s a bit flamboyant,’ added Michel. ‘You can see it in his style of clothes.’ Ekitike recently posted a picture on Instagram of him wearing a tracksuit covered in diamantes and a pink woolly hat.
He caused a stir among Frankfurt fans, too, during the winter break when he shared a video doing warm weather training in Dubai wearing a Borussia Dortmund shirt.
‘Dino Toppmoller, the Frankfurt head coach once said Hugo costs him a few nerves but he loves him and his attitude,’ said Michel.
‘He’s a cool guy. It was Toppmoller who brought him forward and was very important for his development.’
Since Marmoush’s departure, Ekitike has gone from playing in a front two to proving he has what it takes to lead the line on his own, helped by former Dortmund and Bayern Munich playmaker Mario Goetze pulling the strings behind him.
‘He benefits from Goetze’s brilliant passes and is ice-cold in front of goal,’ said Sedlbauer. ‘Defensive work, on the other hand, is not always Hugo. Nevertheless, he is one of the best strikers in the Bundesliga, perhaps even in Europe.’
Do the business again on Thursday night and it’ll be even more likely it’s the Premier League come next season.
Biggest Frankfurt sales in history:
- Randal Kolo Muani to Paris Saint-Germain in 2023/24 - €95 million
- Omar Marmoush to Manchester City in 2024/25 - €75 million
- Luka Jovic to Real Madrid in 2019/20 - €63 million
- Sébastien Haller to West Ham in 2019/20 - €50 million
- Willian Pacho to Paris Saint-Germain in 2024/25 - €40 million
- Jesper Lindstrøm to Napoli in 2023/24 - €30 million
- André Silva to RB Leipzig in 2021/22 - €23 million
- Filip Kostic to Juventus in 2022/23 - €14.7 million
- Djibril Sow to Sevilla in 2023/24 - €10 million
- Kevin Trapp to Paris Saint-Germain in 2015/16 - €9.5 million
It's a sellers market...
So we should make tidy sum then? Honestly though, even for me we have too many players leaving, so I would not mind Gomez staying another year as RB cover
It's never a sellers market for the big clubs...except when we sell to another big club
Not convinced about Cunha - plenty of ability, but gets his goals mainly from long distance and would be a constant disciplinary risk.
You are right, as usual. But as more of a false nine, i guess long range is fine. He is no goal-hanger.
My first choice would be Julian alvarez, but I doubt it is possible. Same with Isak.
Not exactly clinical, but good at creating opportunities for himself.
That looks shit. The state of strikers right now if he's on a shortlist for one of the top teams in the world.
I know right. So unimpressive.
I hope so. I wouldn't usually advocate us gambling on someone lesser known, but when the expensive targets are so uninspiring it's much more tempting. Of the realistic options I think Delap looks best, but I'm not sure he'll fit our style.
German clubs are really trying to get all they can. With prices like that how do you look beyond Cunha. Also, he has 0 red cards in the prem.
View: https://x.com/Footy__Forecast/status/1913286398469173521
View: https://x.com/Footy__Forecast/status/1913286398469173521
He just looks like an on-side Nunez to me. You can see why he's underperforming his xG in that compilation. He takes lots of low-chance shots and doesn't convert any of them. He doesn't seem to know when not to shoot. Mind you, I'd rather that than someone who is shot shy.
I still think Gyokeres is probably the most sensible option, all things considered. At least he's definitely a good finisher and physically right for the PL. Saw before that he might be available for £60m or so - I think he makes more sense at that price than Cunha.