Federico Chiesa’s Liverpool future becomes clearer after Arne Slot’s admission on only signing

The Italian struggled as the Reds went down to a 1-0 defeat to Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup, and having failed to grasp his opportunity he might now be waiting quite a while for another one

It was a day for Liverpool’s senior stars to step up. But unfortunately for those wanting the Reds to progress in the FA Cup, most of them were doing so back on Merseyside.

Arne Slot was always going to rest and rotate for the trip to Plymouth Argyle, but perhaps the scale and the scope of his changes caught some by surprise.

It wasn’t just that 10 of the starters from the Carabao Cup semi-final win over Tottenham were changed, it’s that eight of those didn’t even make the trip to Devon. Of the two who did, Darwin Nunez was only turned to at 1-0 down and Curtis Jones didn’t get off the bench after reporting a slight injury from training.

Safety first was deemed to be the order of the day for Slot, a view summed up by the absence of Conor Bradley, who was kept in reserve just in case Trent Alexander-Arnold hasn’t recovered for Wednesday night’s final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.

That crunch Premier League game kicks off a run of five of them in 15 days for Liverpool, after which they could have one hand on the title or have stumbled and allowed Arsenal and potentially others back into it. We are about to enter this season’s defining period.

All of which meant that Slot didn’t just shuffle his pack but go for a different deck entirely at Home Park, all the while believing, or perhaps more pertinently hoping, that the team he’d named would have enough to win. That they didn’t is largely down to the excellence of Argyle, their defenders in particular, with a deserved mention for the vociferous home crowd too. They played the role of underdogs perfectly.

Of those Slot would have have wanted to step up, captain Joe Gomez looked dizzied and distant almost from the off, eventually going off injured after 11 minutes. Wataru Endo needed to be moved in the reshuffle and wasn’t able to impose himself on the game from further back, Harvey Elliott got a little lost in the congested middle third, Luis Diaz was clearly targeted as Liverpool’s danger man and brilliantly dealt with by Plymouth’s right side and Diogo Jota just didn’t look fit. Kostas Tsimikas was probably the best of the bunch, but he’s the left-back.

Then there was Federico Chiesa. The wildcard of Liverpool’s season could only laugh when in attempting to prevent the ball going out for a throw in from Trey Nyoni’s first half pass he conceded a goal kick instead. It was that sort of day for the Italian, and it would get worse.

Less than two weeks ago he played well in Eindhoven in a similarly changed team for what was effectively a Champions League dead rubber, but he was always likely to get more room to move in to there. Against Plymouth it was about close control, fending off challenges and the accuracy of his final ball, and all were sorely lacking for a player without rhythm.

Last month Slot admitted that he has found it hard to give Chiesa the time on the pitch that he would have wanted to, partly because of a couple of bouts of illness but mainly because of a certain Mo Salah, but there was another admission there too.

Comparing Chiesa’s status in the squad to Ibrahima Konate, who came back from over a month out and went straight into the team to face Manchester United, Slot said: “Some players are clear starters for me I can just give them their first minutes in the first team, one of them is Konate – five weeks out played immediately agonist United because he’s a vital part of our team.”

It would take something remarkable to happen now for Chiesa to be seen as a vital part of Liverpool’s team, and with the Plymouth defeat his chances of another start this season have vastly reduced.

That was always likely to be the case for a player viewed as an inexpensive gamble when he arrived for around £10m last summer as Slot’s first and so far only current signing for this season, but there has never really been any question that he could improve his status as the sixth choice of Liverpool’s six forwards.

He’s still got the ability to come into games and make a difference, and he might still surprise some off the bench this season, but his trip to Plymouth just showed why a player with such promise remains on the outside looking in.

Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.