Wayne Rooney offers alternative view on Hugo Ekitike Liverpool red card - 'Do you not think'
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Wayne Rooney has had his say on Hugo Ekitike's sending off for Liverpool in their Carabao Cup 2-1 victory over Southampton.
The impressive summer second was shown his second yellow immediately after the scoring the winner at Anfield.
It was punishment for Ekitike celebrating his fifth goal in eight games for Liverpool by removing his shirt.
The 23-year-old swiftly apologised for an act that Reds head coach Arne Slot admitted was "stupid" and "needless."
But while former Everton, Manchester United and England star agrees what the new France international did was "silly", he took a different viewpoint.
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"Do you not think that’s refreshing, though?" said the 39-year-old on his BBC show.
"We’ve criticised teams for not playing strong teams and not wanting to really compete in the League Cup.
"You’ve got a player who’s just come in to Liverpool, playing really well, scoring goals, he’s showing that passion and emotion of scoring a late goal in the League Cup.
"I think that’s quite refreshing really for where the cup competitions have been in recent years.
"I get it, I’m not defending him because it is silly.
But what we’ve seen over recent years with VAR and players scoring goals and waiting to celebrate and stuff, I think it’s refreshing to see someone celebrating a goal.
"He’s been caught up in the emotion of scoring a goal and he’ll probably regret it now, but I think it’s nice to see that raw emotion when someone scores a goal."
Ekitike will now miss Liverpool's trip to Crystal Palace on Saturday with his place in the starting line-up likely to be occupied by Alexander Isak.
And Rooney said: "He's doing really well and it's probably a shootout with him and Isak for who’s going to play.
"He's given Isak a chance to come in and try and take his place.
At the minute he’s scoring goals, he's in a good place, I'm sure he'll be devastated."
Slot moved to draw under a line under the episode at his Friday press conference to preview the trip to Palace.
Confirming the forward had not been fined for his red card, the Liverpool boss said: "Disciplined means I spoke to him but if 'disciplined' means a fine, we didn’t do that.
"It wasn’t smart what he did, he recognised that straight away and said sorry to his team-mates.
"Players of all ages do make mistakes and you are allowed at this club to make a mistake without immediately getting fines.
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"He is a fantastic human being, if you speak to all staff members and ask them their warmest human beings, he would be in the top three."