'Incredible' Liverpool man proved he can be Arne Slot's super-sub with his cameo against Southampton - opinion
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Liverpool made it through to the semifinal of the Carabao Cup as they secured a 2-1 win against Southampton at St Mary’s.
With Arne Slot in the stands owing to his suspension, Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliott got their names on the scoresheet in the first half as the Reds secured a hard-fought win.
Cameron Archer halved the deficit in the second half and the Saint threatened to strike back, but a much-changed Liverpool side held on for their lives to book a place in the semifinal.
The game also saw the return of Federico Chiesa, who marked his Liverpool return with a 45-minute cameo.
Federico Chiesa enjoys decent outing on Liverpool return
Chiesa came on for Trent Alexander-Arnold for the second half and took his place on the right flank as he played in attack alongside Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez.
The Italian immediately got the ball at the start of the second half but was caught dwelling on it and Southampton won it back from him.
In the minutes that followed, he failed to get himself in the game as he made his much-awaited return to the same.
However, as the second half went on, he sprung into life especially after Diogo Jota’s arrival, who played him through on goal with a fantastic pass.
Chiesa had a great chance to score but his effort was neither a cross nor a shot as he was left with his hand on his face.
The former Juventus man slowly grew into the game and had two more efforts on goal which were blocked by the Southampton backline.
Chiesa stats vs Southampton
Chiesa didn’t set the world alight with his cameo but will take encouragement from the fact that he played 45 minutes of football at the highest level and came out of it unscathed.
Slot earmarked the Southampton game as Chiesa’s big return and everything went as planned as he got some minutes under his belt.
- 25 touches
- 78% pass accuracy
- 2/5 ground duels won
- 1 shot on target
- 1 big chance missed
- 1/2 dribbles completed
The Italian has had enough time to get to grips with the Premier League and should feature regularly in the coming weeks as games continue to come thick and fast across all competitions.
Chiesa has been described as an ‘incredible’ player by Paulo Sousa and showed flashes of why Liverpool took a punt on him this summer.
To put things bluntly, Liverpool don’t need him to deliver world-class displays every week. All that’s expected from Chiesa is for him to be a reliable rotation option and come on for Mohamed Salah to run at tired legs.
And judging by his display against Southampton, he’s more than capable of doing that.
