Slot reveals Chiesa ‘can get minutes’ against Southampton on one condition

Liverpool coach Arne Slot has confirmed that Italy international Federico Chiesa ‘will get minutes’ in the upcoming EFL Cup match against Southampton on Wednesday night as long as he has a decent training session on Tuesday.

The former Juventus winger joined Liverpool in a €15m deal at the end of the summer transfer window, but has featured for just 78 minutes from three appearances across three different competitions this season.

That could be about to change, however, as Slot has indicated that Chiesa will get on the pitch against Southampton away at St. Mary’s on Wednesday evening.

Chiesa set for Liverpool opportunity against Southampton

Slot does not expect Chiesa to play for the full 90 minutes given that he has not played a full game since Italy’s 2-1 loss to Switzerland at EURO 2024 just shy of six months ago.

“It’s definitely a moment where he can get minutes. The amount of minutes is a question mark. You cannot expect from him to play 90, I think, especially at his level, where the intensity is so high, because he has been out for five or six months now,” Slot said during his pre-match press conference.

“But, if he has a good training session he will make minutes, but it’s going to be a game where not all of our starters will start, so we have to manage minutes.”

Why has Chiesa not played for Liverpool more? 

At the start of the summer, Chiesa was told that he would not be part of future plans for the upcoming season while he was still at Juventus. From there, he largely trained individually at Continassa, meaning that he missed out on a ‘proper’ pre-season.

He then joined Liverpool late on in the summer transfer window, once the Premier League season was well underway, which also impacted his chances of breaking into the first team picture.

There have also been a series of fitness issues as a result of his disrupted start to the season, on top of his history of recurring minor injuries.

Slot also explained last week why it has been ‘difficult’ to give Chiesa more game time in the Liverpool first team.

What makes it difficult is that we play so many games. What he needs is playing time and the problem is, if you haven’t played for five or six months, it’s sometimes difficult for a manager to give him his first minutes because you don’t know exactly what you can expect,” the Liverpool coach said.

“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’ll know a bit better what we can expect from him.”