Watching the second goal again, it’s absolute perfection: Chiesa times his run to perfection, Robbo’s (I think?) long ball is inch-perfect, and Ekitike gets it on a perfect plate from Chiesa. Perfect. 
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Best thing about it for me was Ekitike’s finish. It’s nothing special but having missed a similar sitter against Athletico.
Having had a couple years of Nunez spiralling into a confidence chasm missing a succession of sitters it’s just a relief to see Ekitike not seem to be affected by his.
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In the Leoni thread Romano seem to confirm he is out for the season with an ACL.
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The tweet from Will Still, Southampton manager, adds some important context to the Ekitike second yellow. He had the player at Reims before they sold him to PSG. Clearly there is a great rapport between them, and they were laughing before the game together. Ekitike told him he would come on, score, and give him the shirt and bugger off, and sure enough, that’s exactly what he did.
Holding the shirt up was a gesture toward Still, basically saying, “Here, I’ve got that shirt for you.”
Now, it was still stupid. Especially to get a red card and leave us short against Palace at the weekend. Not good.
But…
I’m slightly relieved that it wasn’t an arrogant thing. That’s the way it came across, and that’s the way Slot took it, when he knocked him down a peg or two for celebrating a tap in like that, instead of pointing to Chiesa, who did all the work to make it such an easy goal for Ekitike.
The unknown part was what was going on between Ekitike and the Southampton manager, his former boss.
Again, still stupid, but I am relieved it wasn’t an arrogance sort of a thing, as that is a character trait we don’t need.
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Fuck fuck fuck fuckity fuck. My heart breaks for the lad. He’s young, I hope he comes back fully healed and better than ever.
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But it was arrogance, the fact that he did it for a former manager , whilst we still had a match to play shows the disrespect not just for the team or the fans at the match , but also for Arne for risking the result for a stupid comment he made pre match to a former boss.
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I can see where you are coming from, but for me, given the new context, it’s more of a stupid thing, and he needs to learn from it.
Slot is the perfect manager to offer course correction, and we have a great culture at the club, with top professionals throughout, who will see him straight.
Was still the best player for Liverpool in that Plymouth game.
Hes a professional footballer on a yellow card who should have been aware of the situation he has no defence at all.
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Since when considering after that game he appeared for a massive 81 minutes across rest of the season.
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How much is that due to Slot refusing to pick him even when fit ?
At this point he’s got 2 assists and 1 goal in his very limited time this season. Do the math.
If Slot refused to pick is a big hint he wasn’t rating him.
As for this season as much as people like yourself are bulling him up Slot thought a 17 year old was the better option for the bench against Everton.
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The yellow card for removing your shirt is the single dumbest rule (that I am aware of) in all of sports and just another assault on the the passion and enjoyment of the game.
But it’s been a rule for ages now and Ekitike knows the rules. Either he lost his head in the moment or he didn’t actually realize he got booked earlier in the game. Eitherway, stupid thing to do and obviously Slot is right to hold him accountable for that.
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Sigh, an ACL this young…
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Yes. It was stupid. He made a mistake. No two ways about it.
If we don’t pick up the three points against Palace there is scope for fans to be even more frustrated with him, but I hope we can quickly draw a line under it and move on.
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And I criticised slot then and I will criticize slot later as well.
Criticised what for exactly?
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And on his debut. That’s fucking cruel.
Chiesa is a really good player, and I think he can make a contribution for us.
But the way he is mythologised on here - to the extent of using him as a stick to beat a manager who won the league in his first season with us - is a bit nauseating.
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I tend to think the slot overplayed his chosen set of players last season. Chiesa wasn’t among his chosen set of players even when fit. It is understandable that Slot never expected to be competing for the title this early into the season.
Hopefully he learns from this and applies that into the next season.
And we had faced the consequences of players being overplayed later into the season. It’s all well and good in hindsight considering that the title was all but won. Doesn’t still take away the fact that Chiesa Elliot were underutilized.
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