Didier Deschamps was full of praise for Hugo Ekitiké after his blistering start to life at Liverpool, but warned that he already has plenty of attacking options to choose from after leaving the in-form forward out of his France squad.

Ekitiké has been in fine form for Liverpool since sealing a £79 million ($106.2 million) move to Merseyside from Eintracht Frankfurt in July.

The 23-year-old needed just 228 seconds to score a debut goal in the Community Shield against Crystal Palace. Ekitiké also found the net against Bournemouth and Newcastle United, becoming the first Liverpool player to score in each of their opening three appearances for the club since Daniel Sturridge back in 2013.

This hot streak wasn’t enough for Deschamps. The long-serving France national team manager is yet to give Ekitiké a call-up and held firm on his omission this week.

“Hugo, because of what he did last season and at Liverpool, we were already following him at Frankfurt,” Deschamps admitted. “Good for him. It’s great that he's effective, but there’s competition. I’m not going to pile up players, but he has the potential for the French team.”

Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappé is France’s captain and undisputed starting striker. Inter forward Marcus Thuram, whose father Lilian won the 1998 World Cup alongside Deschamps, is another favourite who can operate out wide or through the middle.

Paris Saint-Germain’s fluid forward line, Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué and Bradley Barcola all made the cut alongside Michael Olise of Bayern Munich, Manchester City newbie Rayan Cherki and, perhaps most controversially, Monaco’s Maghnès Akliouche. Much like Ekitiké, Akliouche has never previously made a senior international appearance but earned the nod for September’s World Cup qualifiers against Ukraine and Iceland.

In defence of his selection, Deschamps argued: “Maghnès Akliouche is more of a winger. He had a good season with Monaco, he can still improve his effectiveness, but he’s doing some interesting things.”

Liverpool manager Arne Slot perhaps won’t be too put out that his star striker has been overlooked. While the rest of the Reds scatter across the globe over the coming week, Ekitiké can rest at home and aim on maintaining his scoring streak at club level.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Didier Deschamps Sends Hugo Ekitike Message After France Call-Up Snub.

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