'I saw ups and downs' - Arne Slot delivers verdict as Federico Chiesa returns for Liverpool

Evening Standard

·19 December 2024

'I saw ups and downs' - Arne Slot delivers verdict as Federico Chiesa returns for Liverpool

The summer signing made his first competitive appearance since September

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot says it’s “completely normal” that Federico Chiesa had some ups and downs in the Carabao Cup quarter-final win over Southampton.

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The Italian has struggled to make any sort of impact since arriving from Juventus for £12.5million in the summer transfer window.

A mix of injury and illness kept Chiesa out of action for just over two months, with him making a return to the Reds’ matchday squad for the 2-2 draw with Fulham last weekend.

Named on the bench once again in Wednesday night’s cup-tie at St Mary’s, the forward was introduced to proceedings at half-time as he replaced Trent Alexander-Arnold.

And during his 45 minutes on the pitch, Chiesa almost found the back of the net with two efforts that were cleared off the line by Taylor Harwood-Belis and showed glimpses of what he can offer.

Though, while Slot was pleased with what he saw from Chiesa, he accepts the forward wasn't at his best and puts that down to a lack of competitive playing time since the European Championships.

“I don't know if we saw it the same, but I think what I saw is what you can expect,” the Dutchman said. “If a player is out for five or six months you cannot expect [too much].

Back in action: Federico Chiesa made his first senior Liverpool appearance since September.

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“I saw ups and downs. I saw some really good moments and I saw some moments where I felt like, 'OK, you can do better than this.'

“For me, that's completely normal if a player has been out for so long and plays his first game in five or six months.

“I already said before that it makes it so difficult for me because normally in the pre-season a player gets three, four or five games especially and then he's only out for four or five weeks.

“Instead, he was out for so long, so to get him back to his best level is not easy, but it was good to see that he showed some quality already today. But it's the same for him like the youngsters, it's not enough to play at this level, you have to compete with Mo Salah, Cody Gakpo, Lucho [Luis Diaz], Darwin and Diogo [Jota].

“But it's good to see that he's back and that he had a few good moments in the game.”

The holders go into the hat for the Carabao Cup semi-final draw which will be made tonight (Thursday 19 December) at around 10.30pm GMT upon the conclusion of Tottenham’s clash with Manchester United.