Arne Slot tells the press he has reservations over £12.5m talent while admitting to “difficult” situation
Life at Anfield has gone better than expected for Arne Slot as the Dutch coach has Liverpool at the top of the Premier League and Champions League tables, however, the same cannot be said for one Reds star.
The former Feyenoord boss did not make many signings during the summer transfer window but one player that was brought to Merseyside to boost the numbers was Federico Chiesa.
The Premier League giants agreed a £12.5m deal with Juventus for the winger as the 27-year-old was entering the last year of his contract.
With this in mind, new Juve boss Thiago Motta did not have the Italian star in his plans for the 2024/25 campaign and as a result, kept the player away from his main group of players during pre-season – while bad luck caused Chiesa to miss the Girona match.
This meant that Chiesa arrived at Liverpool lacking match fitness and the winger has paid the price for it since.
The 27-year-old has barely featured for the Reds this season, playing just 78 minutes across three matches. Chiesa has returned to Liverpool training but Slot has admitted that he has reservations about playing the Italian star due to his lack of playing time over the last few months.
Arne Slot has concerns over Federico Chiesa
Speaking to the press on Friday ahead of Liverpool’s clash with Fulham, Arne Slot provided an update on Cheisa and has admitted that the Reds’ Southampton match will provide him with the opportunity to assess where the Italian star is at.
“What makes it difficult is that we play so many games,” the Dutch coach said via Liverpool.com when asked about Chiesa. “What he needs is playing time and the problem is if you haven’t played for five or six months it is sometimes difficult for a manager to give him his first minutes because you don’t exactly know what you can expect.”
Slot continued by saying: “Yes, I see him on the training ground, but ideally you see him in a friendly during the week or you see him in an U21 game or something like this – but that is not the situation we have, we play so many games.
“Maybe the Southampton game might be a good moment for him to get some playing minutes and then we know a bit better what we can expect from him. Of course we see his qualities, we know his qualities but he needs to get this fitness level.
“If you only have training sessions, that is not the same as playing time. You need to have playing time to reach certain fitness levels.”
The return of Chiesa should give Liverpool a boost as it will allow Slot to give Salah a bit of a rest during the hectic festive period of the season.
It remains to be seen when the Italian will play next, but going off of the Liverpool coach’s words, it will be soon.
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