Arne Slot has confirmed he plans to use Federico Chiesa and Liverpool’s wider squad more often in the coming weeks, saying the winger “needs minutes.”
Arne Slot has confirmed he plans to use Federico Chiesa and the wider Liverpool squad more often in the coming weeks, saying the winger “needs minutes”. Chiesa’s debut was quick, and he looked set to take up more of the pitch than allowed, replacing Mohamed Salah for the final four minutes of stoppage time for Milan. It is clearly a huge achievement for the Italian winger, who joined Juventus in the final days of the summer transfer window in a deal worth £12.5m. But after spending much of the summer training with the Juventus first team, it has been repeatedly emphasised that Slot will be cautious with his new No.14. However,
speaking to beIN SPORTS after Liverpool’s 3-1 win at the San Siro, the manager was asked if fans would see more of him soon. “Yes, I think we will see,” Slot replied. “We will see a lot of players who didn’t play much today or in other games in the future soon. “But [Chiesa] is always in better shape. He had a difficult pre-season because he couldn’t always train with the Juve first team, so he had to train a lot on his own. “So it took him a while to get fit. He’s just getting better and better. “He needs minutes now, but he also has competition from some good wingers, so let’s see when we use him.
“But he will be a great asset for us, a very good player for us, that’s clear. That’s what we knew before he was signed and that’s what we’re seeing on the pitch now, too. Liverpool are two games away from seven in just 22 days, with Bournemouth, West Ham,
Wolves, Bologna and Crystal Palace all arriving 15 days before the October international break, and it makes sense that the slots will be rotated more during that period. After making two changes to the starting line-up for the trip to Milan. Chiesa is likely to be one of the standout performers, giving Salah some valuable rest during a strong start to the season for the right winger. Tuesday also saw Joe Gomez play his first minutes of the season, while Wataru Endo had another brief outing, with Curtis Jones, Darwin Nunez, Connor Bradley, Jarrell Quansah and possibly Tyler Morton also set to feature in the contest.
