Federico Chiesa featured for 90 minutes for the first time since joining Liverpool from Juventus last summer.
Arne Slot believes that Federico Chiesa will benefit significantly after completing his first full game for Liverpool.
The winger was signed on the penultimate day of the summer transfer window from Juventus. The Reds snapped him up for just £10 million as he had a year left on his deal at the Serie A giants and had been frozen out of their plans.
Chiesa’s chance
Chiesa’s fitness has been carefully managed since arriving on Merseyside. He was sidelined for a lengthy period with an injury and has had limited game-time since recovering. With Liverpool topping the Premier League by six points and having won their opening seven games in the Champions League, Chiesa found it difficult to dislodge the likes of Mo Salah, Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz.
But Salah and Diaz left on Merseyside for last night’s clash against PSV in the final league phase match of the Champions League. The Reds were already into the last 16 of the competition so Slot made several changes.
Chiesa was handed a chance from the outset and was involved in both goals in the 3-2 loss in the Netherlands. He won the penalty that led to Cody Gakpo opening the scoring against his former club before the Italy international’s shot was parried into the path of Harvey Elliott. Most importantly, Chiesa did not need to be substituted and Slot was impressed by the work-rate he displayed.
The Liverpool head coach replied how much of a big step it was for Chiesa to play 90 minutes: “Yeah. And he got a knock with the penalty so that took him a few minutes before he got going again. But I think it’s been seven, eight or nine months ago – maybe even longer, I don’t know exactly – since he played 90. It’s the same for Jayden Danns, it was the same for James McConnell.
“So, we had quite a lot of players that were not used to playing so many minutes in the last six or seven months. So it’s especially for them also important that they make these 90 minutes and were able to keep competing during 90 minutes. OK, Jayden couldn’t manage to play the whole game, but Federico in the end was still sprinting, trying to do his work. So, positive.”
Liverpool may have been frustrated that they threw the lead away twice in the first half to lose against PSV. But the Reds secured top spot in the Champions League standings and will face either PSG, Benfica, Monaco or Brest in the knockout stage.
On securing first place, Slot said: “I don’t know if it’s a big achievement, but it is a good achievement to end up top of this league. I have said many times it is so hard to judge a league table after eight games, let alone if all the teams play different opponents. It doesn’t tell me much, to be honest, because some teams have faced easier opponents than others. It’s always nice if there’s a new format that you end up No.1, but it doesn’t give us any assurances for the next round because if I now check the league table and I see the four teams we can face and one of them is one you’re hoping not to face if you end up first in a group like this.”
