{"id":576476,"date":"2025-11-17T16:20:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T16:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/576476\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T16:20:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T16:20:28","slug":"french-media-respond-to-hugo-ekitikes-latest-france-display-explain-what-will-be-remembered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/576476\/","title":{"rendered":"French media respond to Hugo Ekitike&#8217;s latest France display, explain what &#8216;will be remembered&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img width=\"1140\" height=\"641\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Hugo-Ekitike-Liverpool-Arne-Slot-1140x641.jpg\" class=\"attachment-single-feature size-single-feature wp-post-image\" alt=\"Hugo Ekitike in a red Liverpool kit and Arne Slot in inset\" layout=\"fill\"  style=\"object-position: 50% 20%\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" \/><\/p>\n<p>(Credit: Imago, Hasan Karim &#8211; Breaking Media)<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20210903_163509-150x150.jpg\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" alt=\"Ciaran Morrison\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>   <\/p>\n<p> Mon 17 November 2025 15:48, UK <\/p>\n<p><strong>Arne Slot should not play Hugo Ekitike in one position after the Liverpool striker failed to impress in France\u2019s win over Azerbaijan.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Dutchman may have been keeping a close eye on France\u2019s World Cup qualifying match with Ibrahima Koante also in the starting XI.<\/p>\n<p>Following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/newcastle-leak-was-right-as-financial-details-of-alexander-isaks-move-to-liverpool-revealed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liverpool\u2019s purchase of Alexander Isak from Newcastle<\/a> too during the summer, Slot is still yet to find the right formula to fit the Sweden striker and Ekitike in the same line-up.<\/p>\n<p>Ekitike scored five goals in his first eight appearances for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/tag\/liverpool\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liverpool<\/a>, but the 23-year-old has only found the net once since.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Hugo-1Ekitike-Liverpool-1024x575.jpg\" alt=\"Hugo Ekitike in action for Liverpool\" class=\"wp-image-730244\" \/>Credit: ImagoHugo Ekitike fails to impress in France win<\/p>\n<p>Slot has also been unable to get the best out of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/florian-wirtz-sparks-serious-concern-after-perfect-scenario-failed-at-liverpool\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Florian Wirtz, whose form has been criticised at Liverpool<\/a> amid zero goal contributions in the Premier League so far.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/liverpool-superstar-left-in-tears-at-luis-diazs-emotional-farewell\/#:~:text=Football%20Insider%20revealed%20that%20Liverpool,now%20complete%20the%20Colombian&#039;s%20signing.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Luis Diaz\u2019s departure from Liverpool to Bayern Munich<\/a> has also left a hole on the left flank, which Ekitike has taken up with Isak in the side on a couple of occasions.<\/p>\n<p>Ekitike took up the left flank spot for France against Azerbaijan, but the striker was ineffective despite his nation having 74% possession.<\/p>\n<tr>\n<td>Minutes Played<\/td>\n<td>90<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Shots<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Touches<\/td>\n<td>44<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Touches in opposition box<\/td>\n<td>7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Big Chances Missed<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<p>Hugo Ekitike\u2019s stats for France against Azerbijan. <\/p>\n<p>MORE FOOTBALL INSIDER STORIES<\/p>\n<p>Whilst the French newspaper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leparisien.fr\/sports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Le Parisien<\/a>, [16 November], gave a damning verdict on Ekitike\u2019s display: \u201cThree days after his sensational debut against Ukraine, the\u00a0Liverpool\u00a0striker was far less convincing. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the left wing, he struggled to get into shooting positions and didn\u2019t connect well with his strike partner, Mateta. His tireless work rate, however, will be remembered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Arne Slot conundrum continues <\/p>\n<p>Isak may still need to build up his fitness, but when the 26-year-old is fit and firing, Slot will be under pressure to start him given the huge \u00a3125million price tag. <\/p>\n<p>Ekitike will also not be happy starting games on the bench, so Slot faces a dilemma keeping both players happy.<\/p>\n<p>Slot has not yet switched formation to combine the pair up-front in the same team, with the Dutchman sticking to his favoured 4-2-3-1.<\/p>\n<p>A natural winger in Cody Gakpo has currently seen the best results for Slot down the left flank, and Ekitike has proven so far that he cannot fulfil the position.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credit: Imago, Hasan Karim &#8211; Breaking Media) Mon 17 November 2025 15:48, UK Arne Slot should not play&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,5759,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-576476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-hugo-ekitike","12":"tag-liverpool"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115565955450025226","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}