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Liverpool attacker Federico Chiesa has been linked with a move away from Anfield.(Image: Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images)

For a manager who has been keen to get a look at some of his players on the fringes since becoming Premier League champions, Arne Slot has continued to largely overlook the offerings of Federico Chiesa.

Rarely does a social media post about the Reds' team news pass without plenty of debate around the omission of Chiesa and that was arguably never more prevalent than last week, when the Italian was left out of the squad entirely for the visit of Arsenal.

Slot made six changes for the recent trip to Chelsea but Chiesa still found his nose pressed up to the glass, watching on as an onlooker for 82 minutes before he was belatedly sent on to rescue a game the champions lost 3-1.



READ MORE:Arne Slot makes Federico Chiesa position at Liverpool clear - 'Is he good enough?'READ MORE:Arne Slot makes Liverpool transfer declaration and confirms position on squad players - 'there's a reason'

That's how it's generally been for the attacker since he traded Liverpool for Juventus in August of last year.

Only twice has Chiesa completed 90 minutes, with the Champions League dead rubber against PSV in January followed by the dismal FA Cup exit at Plymouth Argyle the following month.

Just 392 minutes across 13 appearances since his arrival paints the picture of a player who is very much down the pecking order for the Reds and while that much is no surprise given the wealth of options available to Slot, the troubling part for Chiesa is how little he's featured since the title was wrapped up last month.

In 180 minutes played since, he has featured for just eight and the decision to leave him out of the squad for the visit of Arsenal has been interpreted as a head coach who sees no use for the only signing of his time so far.

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That might be harsh and Slot has argued that his omission speaks more to the embarrassment of riches he has in his forward department but Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez have just 11 Premier League goals between them this term and neither have been anywhere top speed for some time now.

Despite being overlooked, Slot has doubled down on his insistence that Chiesa's future does not lie away from Anfield, claiming that his use of the phrase "or another club" when discussing his player's credentials in his Friday press conference was a slip of the tongue.

"No, that was lost in translation or I didn't say it in the way I meant it," Slot says.

At the time, there seemed little need to rush the summer signing into anything that might have been too strenuous given he had no pre-season to call his own while Juve negotiated his exit.

With Mohamed Salah in some of the best form of his career, Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo enjoying fruitful periods and Nunez and Jota jockeying for position as the No.9, there was never any need to force Chiesa into something that might trigger a prolonged spell on the sidelines.

But as we near the end of his first year on Merseyside, at no point has Chiesa threatened to move beyond his station of sixth choice forward.

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"Does he have a future here?

But yeah, pre-season gives them the chance to show themselves again."

The former Fiorentina man was widely seen as a low-risk signing with a huge upside last year but couching as a £12m steal always came with the caveat that Liverpool would need to get him up to the sort of speed he was at four years ago for it to be considered something of a transfer masterstroke.

Claims of interest from Napoli this week have been dismissed but a return to his homeland, where his reputation is at its highest, may be a move that suits all parties at this stage.

Having joined the Reds after the season was already underway, Chiesa has been made to play catch-up from day one and he seems to be getting no closer to doing so.

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Slot, though, is preparing to give Chiesa another bite at the cherry this summer in a bid to prove he belongs with the new Premier League champions.


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