Fresh from scoring his first goal for Les Bleus in the 4-0 defeat to Ukraine three days earlier – a result that secured their place in next summer’s World Cup – the Liverpool striker was rewarded with a place in the starting line-up as his national coach indulged in some experimentation.
The 23-year-old has played exclusively through the middle for the Reds since his move from Eintracht Frankfurt, but yesterday in Baku he was deployed as a left wingerwith Jean-Philippe Mateta getting the nod at centre-forward.
How did the French media assess Ekitike on Sunday?
Ekitike played the full 90 minutes against Azerbaijan but was not on the scoresheet this time, and even with France having comfortably qualified (and despite Deschamps’ praise), the media in his home country were uncharitable with their post-match statements:
GOAL (5/10): ‘The Liverpool striker has been excellent for his new team so far but has looked completely at sea at times. It seems to be better if you lead the way.’
The Sports Journal (5/10): ‘The Liverpool player moved a lot and did good things, but was not successful, both in front of goal and with his final pass.’
The Parisian (4/10): ‘On the left wing he struggled to get into shooting positions and could not link up well with his attacking partner Mateta, but his tireless work rate will be remembered.’
Eurosport France (4/10): ‘He lacked precision and sometimes speed. He was significantly less effective and squandered several chances. The former Parisian must do better against such a weak opponent. In short, dormant.’
Le Figaro: ‘A bad night’.
Deschamps did Slot a favor with the Ekitike experiment
The French media certainly weren’t too keen on Ekitike’s performance on Sunday, and the statistics suggest it wasn’t his best.
According to Bank scorethe 23-year-old lost six of his eight matches, had the lowest success rate of any player for France (68%), missed one ‘big chance’, had just one shot (which was blocked), made no defensive contributions and lost the ball 20 times (the most of anyone for his team).
There were some suggestions that Slot might use the Frenchman as a winger to try and accommodate both him and Alexander Isak in the same Liverpool starting XI without the need for a change in formation.
Deschamps gave the Reds boss a glimpse of how Ekitike was doing off the ball, without the Dutchman having to risk it in a match of significance, and the Les Bleus manager’s experiment did not have the desired effect.
Judging from what happened yesterday in Baku, our number 22 is unlikely to start on the left wing of his club anytime soon. Fortunately, this was not at the expense of LFC; If anything, it’s to our advantage as the player will be better for the experience, while Slot will also have learned a few things about how to best use the 23-year-old.
You can watch Slot’s full post-Man City press conference via Kingdom of the Kop on YouTube:
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