Arne Slot Says Liverpool's Federico Chiesa "Needs Minutes Now"

09/18/2024 11:50 AM

After being frozen out at Juventus, Chiesa has been building up fitness since joining Liverpool and made his first appearance in a cameo against AC Milan.

After being frozen out at Juventus before his move to join Liverpool in the final week of the summer transfer window, Federico Chiesa's start to life in Red has been focused on building up his fitness given he didn't have much by way of a pre-season.

As a result, last night against AC Milan his short stoppage time cameo three weeks after he arrived marked his first appearance for his new club. Manager Arne Slot, though, says that with two games a week for the foreseeable future minutes will soon come.

"I think we will see more of the players who have not played today or in other games in the future," Slot noted, beginning broadly after being asked about Chiesa's seemingly rather slow integration into the first team since arriving at Liverpool.

"But he's getting fitter and fitter. He had a difficult pre-season because he was not always able to train with the first team at Juve. He had to train on his own and it takes a bit of time to get to match fitness. It's getting better but he needs minutes now.

"He has competition from some good wingers as well, so let's see when we'll use him, but he's gonna be a big asset, a very good player for us. That's clear, we knew it before we signed him, and that's also what we see on the training ground now."

Chiesa is still just 26 years of age and when he was linked to Liverpool in past summers—which happened more than once—it was typically with a proposed fee in the £60-80M region reflecting a reputation as one of the top wingers in football.

Struggles to get back up to speed following an ACL injury and then appearing not to be in Juventus' long-term plans as he entered the final year of his contract meant he ended up signing for Liverpool for a fee of just £10M rising to £12.5M with add-ons.