Liverpool supporters would be forgiven for having a sense of deja vu. A seasoned 26-year-old attacking talent with a major European honour brought to Anfield for a surprisingly low fee but then barely seen as the Reds scrap for the Premier League title.
For Champions League winner Xherdan Shaqiri in 2018/19, read European Championships hero Federico Chiesa this season.
Their situations, while similar, aren’t quite identical. Shaqiri, for example, was regularly involved before his continued failure to emerge from the bench during much of the second half of the campaign became a source of intense curiosity among the Liverpool fanbase.
The Swiss also had the grounding of Premier League experience with previous club Stoke City, while Chiesa’s early months were largely one of adaptation and having to make up for a lost pre-season having been cold-shouldered towards the end of his time at Juventus.
That, though, hasn’t quite been able to explain why the Italian has been so rarely used by Arne Slot since arriving in a deal that could ultimately cost Liverpool £12.5million.
In terms of a transfer gamble, it remains a no-brainer at that cost. But the reluctance of Slot to give Chiesa minutes was put into fresh perspective at the weekend when, in a lively cameo from the bench in the League Cup final loss to Newcastle United, the now 27-year-old struck an excellent goal to give Liverpool hope of an unlikely comeback during injury time.
Certainly, on current form it’s unlikely either Darwin Nunez or Diogo Jota would have been in position to score from Harvey Elliott’s inviting throughball, let alone have the confidence to finish so clinically.
That was only Chiesa’s 11th appearance of the season. Indeed, he has made just three brief substitute appearances in the Premier League totalling less than half-an-hour. In all competitions, the forward has only three starts.
But while the sample size is extremely small, with two strikes and two assists in 387 minutes of action, Chiesa is delivering a goal contribution every 97 minutes. Only Mohamed Salah has a better ratio this campaign for Liverpool.
Of course, that Liverpool are 12 points clear at the summit suggests they have done pretty well enough without the forward. And Slot has previously stated his reservations over Chiesa’s lack of intensity. But the failure of the Reds boss to rotate sufficiently in key areas of the team not only contributed to some jaded recent performances, but also the struggle for some fringe players to make an immediate impact.
Slot admitted as much last week. “If you look at our schedule in the past three-four months, if for example we play on Saturday and then Tuesday, the ones who played on Saturday are only doing recovery sessions and are not on the pitch,” he explained. “Then it’s the day before the game and it’s 10-15 minutes of tactics, more walking football than playing football.
“So there is hardly a moment when they can compete with each other. For the ones that don’t start, it’s not an ideal world we have so many games.”
Chiesa has also been hampered by being bought ostensibly as backup on the right flank to Mohamed Salah who, the last week notwithstanding, has been in stupendous form this season. But the lack of goals from Nunez, Jota and Luis Diaz since the turn of the year, allied to the recent absence of Cody Gakpo, should have given the Italian more opportunities.
But the experience of Shaqiri means Chiesa shouldn’t be written off just yet, having remained at Liverpool for another two seasons and ending his debut campaign a Champions League winner again after playing his part in the memorable semi-final comeback against Barcelona.
The job for Liverpool this term is different, instead looking to guide themselves over the Premier League finishing line. And Wembley demonstrated there should be a chance for Chiesa to belatedly make his top-flight mark this season – and possibly beyond the summer too.