Arne Slot admitted Federico Chiesa gave him more than he could have expected as the Italian was handed his first Premier League start against Brighton on Monday.
The Italian winger has found game time extremely difficult to come by this season, with Slot restricting his starts to cup competitions as well as dead rubbers in the Premier League and Champions League.
Chiesa had to wait until gameday 37 in the league to make his first start, featuring as a striker up until his removal just past the hour mark, at which point Liverpool was leading 2-1.
Despite Chiesa not scoring or assisting, Slot said he was happy with the 27-year-old’s performance as he explained his decision to deploy the Italian through the middle of Liverpool’s attack.
“I think the biggest quality Federico has is scoring goals,” Slot said in his post-game press conference. “So the more you get him in and around the box, the bigger chance it is for him to score a goal.
“He got a good chance just before Mo had his big chance — Mo assisted to Federico and for him to have an open shot from the 18-yard box is for Federico a very good chance because he’s such a great finisher. But [it was] well defended by [Jan Paul] van Hecke, who blocked that ball.
(Image: 2025 Liverpool FC)
“I think he did even more than I could expect from him. Because if you haven’t played throughout the whole season, hardly ever had any starts, and then to play Brighton away.
“Brighton is a very good team, No.8 of the league that can bring in Mitoma 20 minutes before the end — that tells you everything about this league.
“For him (Chiesa) to be out for so long and play a game like this is more than I could expect from him.”
On the game itself, which Liverpool led twice before losing 3-2, Slot said: “A great game of football. Two teams that wanted to play, two teams that wanted to win, had no intentions to do things that people normally don’t like to see if they watch a game of football.
“No time-wasting, no tumbling — two teams that were just for almost 100 minutes trying to win a game of football and with some brilliant individual moments.”
