‘Infectious’ Liverpool star backed to become ‘one of the best in the world’ after destroying West Ham | OneFootball

Former Manchester United and England midfielder Owen Hargreaves has backed a top Liverpool star to become ‘one of the best in the world’ in his position following the 5-2 rout of West Ham on Saturday.

Arne Slot’s men jumped back into the Premier League’s top five, which should be enough to secure Champions League football come the end of the season, as they ran riot against a Hammers side who remain in a fierce battle to avoid the drop.

Goals from Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk, Alexis Mac Allister, Cody Gakpo and an Axel Disasi own goal delivered a massive three points for Liverpool as they leapfrogged Chelsea into that all-important fifth spot.

But it was the performance of Ekitike in particular that drew plenty of praise from Hargreaves.

Liverpool signed Ekitike for an initial £69million fee from Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt last summer and the 23-year-old has been one of the club’s standout performers in an inconsistent campaign, scoring an impressive 16 goals in 37 appearances.

After scoring the opener against West Ham, Hargreaves firmly believes that the France international has all the qualities to become one of the best strikers in world football.

“I tell you why he [Slot] is smiling, he’s got Hugo Ekitike in his team,” Hargreaves told Premier League Productions.

“What a player he is by the way, oh my word, he could be one of the best strikers in the world.

‘I know we’ve got [Erling] Haaland but I think he’s got one of the most complete games, and the one thing I think all the top players need is confidence and belief, and he has.

“Every time he steps on the pitch you can tell he’s like, ‘give me the ball, I’m going to create something’. And today [against West Ham], again, every time he touches the ball something special happens.

“He makes it look so easy with everything. He’s got size, he’s got skill, he’s got technique, he’s got awareness, always in the right place at the right time, technically he’s top and he’s got this confidence which I think is infectious.”

Liverpool backed to secure fifth spot

Hargreaves, meanwhile, has also backed Liverpool to secure a Champions League place ahead of Chelsea this season.

Asked if the Reds will finish in the top five, which should be enough to secure Champions League football after another impressive performance from English sides in this season’s competition, Hargreaves said: “I think they will.

“I think the difficulty for Chelsea is they have a really young team, they don’t have the experience that I think Liverpool have.

“They’ve [Chelsea] probably got the hardest run of fixtures, if you look at Chelsea’s fixtures, if they’re going to get into it they’ve really got it earn it, Chelsea.”

Liverpool are back in action on Tuesday night when they head to bottom club Wolves, who secured a rare win this season on Friday night when they arguably put an end to Aston Villa’s slim title hopes.

A well-connected Italian journalist is adamant that Liverpool are very much in the mix to sign one of Inter Milan’s best players this summer after explaining how the Reds plan to trigger his signing.

Elsewhere, Liverpool have been urged to break the bank to sign a world-class PSG superstar as a replacement for Mo Salah, and with a controversial broadcaster revealing the surprise move he has heard the Egyptian superstar will now be making this summer.

Finally, Chelsea are set to be in the market for a new centre-forward this summer, and they have been surprisingly urged to sign ex-Liverpool star Darwin Nunez, as our sources confirm he is open to a sensational return to the Premier League.