In the Premier League, Federico Chiesa had played just 41 minutes (excluding added time) for Liverpool before this game. Forty-one minutes into the 3-2 defeat to Brighton, he had barely touched the ball.
Signed from Juventus for a modest fee of around $13 million (£10 million) last summer, things have not gone to plan for the Italian winger. On this occasion, his first start in the English top flight, he wasn’t even played in his best role, instead deployed as a makeshift number nine.
Lacking sharpness and playing out of position, what more could he do, you might ask? But the reality for Chiesa is that he needs to make the most of the scraps he gets thrown. He isn’t getting anything more than that any time soon.
“I think [Slot’s] just giving him a game,” Jamie Carragher had said pre-match, and it is hard to argue with that point of view. “The supporters love him because he’s got a great chant, but he hasn’t really offered too much.
“People may say he hasn’t had too much of an opportunity. He’s had injury problems in the past, but it hasn’t really worked, and all I would say is the manager watches him train every single day. He hasn’t put him in, but he’s put him in now the title’s won.”
It was nice to see Chiesa, but did we learn anything new? Not really. It is for that exact reason that the 27-year-old has a decision to make on his future this summer, despite him still having three years left on his contract.
Chiesa has made clear this season that he likes being at Liverpool. But the reality is that he is not likely to play much if he does stay next season, and if the games he plays in are as sporadic as they have been (there is no reason to think otherwise at this point), then his chances of impressing sufficiently to grow his role are going to be limited.
When they come, they are going to be in difficult circumstances such as these, or the much-changed side that lost to Plymouth in the FA Cup.
Throughout Chiesa’s time on the pitch at the Amex Stadium, Arne Slot was shouting instructions his way, imploring him to press. He was more than willing to oblige and got through plenty of running, but he just wasn’t quick and instinctive enough at doing it.
It looked like Chiesa was a player still getting to grips with what is being asked of him, mainly because he was thrown in at the deep end rather than being used to playing. Doing the theory on the training pitch is not the same as putting it into practice in a match.
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There is an element of: “What comes first, the regular game time or the good performances?”
Chiesa might (legitimately) make the case that he can only begin to impress when he gets more regular opportunities.
But as Slot has said multiple times this season, that would mean taking Mohamed Salah out of the starting XI, and Chiesa isn’t going to hit even half that level of output, even at his very best.
It is right that Chiesa is going to need regular game time — some sustained substitute apperances, at least, if not starts — to get anywhere close to where he needs to be. But with so many options in front of him, it feels unlikely that will come.
If a transfer offer that adds up for all parties arrives this summer, with Napoli among those to have been linked, it makes sense that Chiesa would move on. He could stay, of course, but at this point, after this latest reminder, it is hard to see his situation shifting all that much.
