Hugo Ekitike is a ‘tall, lanky tot’ after ‘one of dumbest’ red cards

That was very stupid from Hugo Ekitike and he deserves all the criticism coming his way from Liverpool fans and others.

We also have some more criticism of Enzo Maresca, while the Arsenal negativity debate goes on.

Send your views to theeditor@football365.com

Big daft Hugo Ekitike…

Well, Hugo’s not bossed that.

When Ekitike first pitched up at the AXA for his medical this summer he had a trendy Labubu doll dangling from his overnight bag. I remember thinking crikey, this is just a child… really just a tall, lanky tot. Then I’d heard how thoughtfully he spoke and saw him take to a heavy No. 9 shirt like duck to water and figured, well no, this is a man… a sleek, wiry brute that will give anybody a real run at the striker position.

After tonight I’m back to thinking Ekitike is but a wee lad with still-developing brain, in need of stabilisers, cartoons and a blankie. Madness from him for that first yellow, madder still how he got the second. What to do now at Selhurst when Isak needs a blow on 70′ with our fixture knotted at 0-0 ?

And more mysterious, how are we managing results upon results in all such ugly manner of ways. This performance only continued a first-team trend of deceiving to flatter. But for one late intervention, Joe Gomez was utterly poor throughout. Endo’s misjudged header will be pilloried as the comedy highlight but he too was poor on at least a dozen other occasions tonight. Ngumoha shone but ultimately still struggled. Leoni and Chiesa were just about the only bright spots. At some point we’ll need to start winning while looking the part.
Eric, Los Angeles CA (My wife’s got a Labubu but it’s been banished to her office.)

…Nice of Ekitike to be providing Isak with free accommodation since his move to Merseyside. Getting himself suspended is an excellent moving-in gift. #teammates.
PB IRE

Liverpool not lucky but Ekitike stupid

I’ve been a reader of the website from the beginning (remember when David Icke wrote articles?), and have consequently periodically had to write in to make the following point over the years. Apologies for the repetition for my fellow veterans.

Liverpool were not lucky last night when Southampton hit the bar and then failed to score from the rebound. These were misses. No mysterious spell, fairy, deity or any other external power exerted control over those events to cause them to go in Liverpool’s favour.

Southampton failed to hit the target through the lack of the necessary positioning, composure, skill or whatever, and in that regard there is little difference between what happened and if either of them had blootered the ball clean out of the stadium and into space. Whenever this sort of nonsense thinking arises, I am reminded of the saying “Weak me believe in luck, strong men believe in cause and effect.”

Whilst I’ve got you, the Ekitke red card has to be one of the dumbest and avoidable ever (a future ‘top ten’ F365 listicle for you right there, no need to thank me). First yellow for deliberately punching (not even kicking) the ball in the air some 60 seconds or more after the referee’s decision and then for deliberately taking your top off. Absolutely moronic in the moment, and even more so when you think that Liverpool are trying to ease Isak into fitness..
Matt D, London

The rules are stupid, not the player

Nice to get another late winner, I guess. Would’ve preferred for the Red men to dish out a royal spanking instead.

Shame that the main training point is now Ekitike’s sending off. The stupidity is more from the rules than him. How can any rational human equate taking your top off or throwing the ball away to actually hurting another player in a foul?!!

Did Ekitike taking his top off hurt anyone? Did it hurt the sport of association football? Did throwing the ball away hurt anyone?

Nonsense rules frankly. I want players to celebrate however they bloody well want. Also, if a player can be cautioned for throwing the ball up in the air, then I want to see referees and VARs cautioned for taking more than 10 seconds when reviewing anything.
Hesh (LFC)

Enzo Maresca making it up as he goes

I wrote and got published last week, calling Maresca a bald fraud Championship BTec Pep who makes it up as he goes.

My opinion is not changing – because the guy just keeps on offering even more evidence to support my claims.

7 games of the season, 7 different defence line ups. Playing against league one Lincoln, our defence look like they’ve never played a professional game together before… oh, wait. They haven’t. How the hell can there be trust and consistency? There simply won’t be. The win might keep the reaper from the door for now, but that was an absolutely shocking 90mins.

Against Man United Maresca removed all pace/wingers/attackers and it cost us the game. Tonight his new experiment was getting to a position of leading 2-1 and not killing the game off… taking off a centre midfielder and replacing him with a left back. Cucurella in midfield!
Making it up as he goes.
Ash, Kent

The Brighton line

Welcome to Chelsea, Diego Gomez!
RM. Dublin

Football chairmen are stupid

Johnny Nic is right with this. It goes on all the time.

Look at West Ham. When you think about West Ham as a club, they’re very working class. They see football as an escape. They want up and at ’em football, high tempo, lots of goalmouth action, passion. Whether that’s actually got them very far down the years is irrelevant. That’s just what they are. But no, they said, let’s appoint Graham Potter – of the quiet, cerebral, chin stroking variety, a man who projects calm even when 5-0 down. The fit simply couldn’t be any worse.

My local team, Swansea, did it a few years back. They put “muck and nettles” Michael Duff in charge of a club whose recent history has had far more to do with imitating Barcelona, not Barnsley. He lasted about two minutes, unsurprisingly.

The unpalatable truth is, a lot of our football clubs are run by idiots. It’s a sobering thought.
Andy H, Swansea

On Arsenal and stuff

Regarding Aiden’s 16 ‘mehs’: if you were that bored why bother commenting being sarcastic or not? Regarding the Liverpool v Arsenal game with the way Slot set up at home against Arteta who has never won at Anfield 15 conclusions would be ‘meh’ and one would be about a Worldie. Slot summed how tight the game was. Football365’s conclusions were so watered down I assume it was an effort to make 16.

So to assess Arsenal’s tricky start: as stated, Arteta has not won at Anfield but was close to getting a point; has only beaten City twice but through positive substitutions salvaged a point. A tough away fixture against Newcastle next week which Liverpool won in the100th minute v 10 men.

Somehow Liverpool are on full points so fair play to them. Arsenal’s total isn’t bad considering their fixtures. We’re five games in and apparently the title has already been decided.

All the things I would’ve normally covered have already been mentioned so I have nothing further to add.
Chris, Croydon

Six hours later…

I wrote in earlier to say everything had been covered. However, one thing I forgot to cover is Neville talking out of his backside by praising Pep’s negative tactics to hold on to a one goal lead with eleven men when, ironically he slated Arteta for doing the same with ten men.

Another thing, after listening to an interview with Pep, he seemed to claim that if Arsenal win the title it will be down to money spent and not hard work by ‘his friend’. How hypocritical! He seemed to direct that at Slot too although I couldn’t really translate how he put that across.
Chris, Croydon

(Pretty sure he was joking – Ed)

Do Arsenal just not have the tools?

I’ve been hearing both sides of the debate about Arteta being too defensive, etc, and there’s one point that always seems to get glossed over, and yet it feels relevant as a neutral. I’m not sure whose side gets backed up by it, though.

Hand on heart, whatever your club loyalties, what Arsenal forward improves the first team of Liverpool, or to a lesser extent (as they aren’t as favoured to win the league), Man City?

Obviously, Gyokeres gets in neither side – Haaland, Isak, Ekitike and probably also Marmoush are either far better players or just better players. That’s not meant as a criticism of Gyokeres, he’s still better than a huge number of Premier League forwards, just not their rivals. Saka? It goes without saying that he doesn’t displace Salah, at least, – maybe in a couple of years. Who else genuinely even gets into the conversation? And no, Eze doesn’t. Yet. He’s been fantastic at a mid-table club, but no-one knows how the step-up will go. We have seen at least as many lauded players make a similar leap between clubs fail as we have seen succeed and he has barely played for Arsenal.

There are two ways of looking at this: either Arteta is forced into playing a more defensive style than his rivals in big games, because attacking football is the comparative weakness in his squad, or else he has bought poorly, or been unable to improve players, and so still takes the blame.

I understand the frustration at the way Arsenal set up this season because of the context (Liverpool were being talked about like they were a wounded animal ripe for the kill (rightly or wrongly), and Man City had just lost a couple of matches, and looked very vulnerable in transition (hence, perhaps, Pep’s own defensive approach).) I think, however, that it needs to be borne in mind that a lot of that noise is coming from media, and not necessarily agreed with by coaches. But regardless, two things can be true at once – Arsenal might not be that offensively minded in big games currently, and that might also be playing to the strengths of their squad, and trying to minimise their weaknesses, and thus the best way to try to get three points.

So, a bit of a ramble-y way to say that I’m not sure Arteta can be blamed for the way he sets them up because they don’t have the tools.
Greg, Taunton