Federico Chiesa has played just 171 minutes for Liverpool since his summer move and Arne Slot has now explained why it has not been easy integrating him into his team.
Chiesa arrived at the end of August after being frozen out at Juventus, forcing him to undertake a long fitness journey to be considered for selection by Slot.
Illness has only further limited his opportunities so far this season, which amounts to one start from six appearances – the most he has played in a single game was 59 minutes against West Ham in September.
It has been a frustrating journey for the player and the club, but after Slot acknowledged the Italian is “not ready to start 90 yet,” he elaborated on why handing him minutes hasn’t been easy.
“Every player is unique, so each one has his own background,” Slot started. “Jota had a normal pre-season, well not normal as he was at the Euros, but he had a normal start with us and Federico did not.
“Federico was unlucky a few times when moments were there for him to play that he was ill or sick.
“And then we also saw how difficult it is, Jota is a great example, for a player who has been out for five, six, seven weeks, to bring him back to that load of playing every single game 60-90 minutes.
“You have to be really careful with that if you don’t want to go into another injury, especially because there is no winter break and there is no time during the weeks to give them a game.
“Unless I have to play them with the U21s, but I don’t think a player like Federico Chiesa or Diogo Jota should play in those games. That makes it hard if a player gets injured to bring them back.”
Slot, however, went on to differentiate the re-integration process for players who he deems to be “clear starters,” with Ibrahima Konate an obvious exception after he returned from his knee injury.
“Some players are clear starters for me I can just give them their first minutes in the first team, one of them is Ibrahima Konate – five weeks out played immediately agonist United because he’s a vital part of our team,” Slot explained.
“Unfortunately for Federico, he has Mo Salah in front of him so he doesn’t have the similar status that Konate has.
“That makes it hard for us to build him up on the right way, but I’m happy he had a good 30-45 minutes against Accrington Stanley, and although it was five minutes he was part of the team that scored two goals [at Brentford] and he was really happy with it.”
It is an interesting point that Slot made about Konate as he has played 256 minutes across Liverpool’s last five games since he returned from injury, one he is still taking painkillers for.
There is a delicate balance between pushing players too far on return from injury, as Liverpool were seemingly gentle with Jota for his comeback (six appearances off the bench) but he still succumbed to a setback.
For Chiesa, though, patience is evidently the word for everyone as Slot and his coaches look to ease him into the team when the right situation arises.
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