Wayne Rooney makes Hugo Ekitike feelings clear as Liverpool star named Premier League best

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Liverpool Echo IconSportFootballLiverpool FCWayne Rooney heaps praise on Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitike after he scored his 11th of the campaign in Saturday's 2-1 win over Tottenham HotspurWayne Rooney has branded Hugo Ekitike as the best signing of the summer transfer window after the Liverpool striker scored his 11th goal of the season at the weekend.France international Ekitike nodded home the Reds' second as they beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in North London and the £79 signing from Eintracht Frankfurt has now scored twice as many as the club's second highest marksman in the Premier League in Cody Gakpo, who has four for the term.Ekitike is now expected to lead the line for the foreseeable future due to a potential significant lay-off for fellow striker Alexander Isak and Rooney was full of praise for how the No.22 has adapted to life at Liverpool since his transfer to Merseyside.READ MORE: Milos Kerkez details what has changed at Liverpool recently as Florian Wirtz impact growsREAD MORE: Alexander Isak's Liverpool luck only changed for a second as £125m man suffers cruel setback“He's been one of, if not the best, signing in the Premier League," Manchester United and England legend Rooney said, on his eponymous BBC podcast."And fair play to him because the pressure on him must have been huge because obviously he cost quite a bit of money as well, but with Liverpool bringing Wirtz in and Isak, there was a huge amount of pressure on him to try and get in the team. "And he's been the one who's the most consistent one for them in terms of scoring goals and his overall play has been really good.

So to go there and win the way they did, fair play to them."Rooney added: “They look more solid, they look like they're not conceding as many goals. They look like they're working together to not concede goals and they definitely look more solid.

"And with the attacking players they’ve got on the team, if you don't concede goals, then obviously you've got a better chance to win games. And when you say about going back to basics, which I've said on here quite a few times."It looks like defensively they've said: ‘We're going to be harder to beat, we're going to be hard to play against, hard to score against’."And then you rely on your forward players to go and win you the game and it sounds simple but that looks like what they've done and that's obviously helping them.”The Premier League champions return to action when they host rock-bottom Wolves on December 27.