With the Premier League title now safely in Liverpool’s possession, Arne Slot has greater scope to hand game-time to some of the lesser-seen faces in his squad for the remainder of the season.
The Reds have four more matches to play in their triumphant campaign, alternating between trips to Chelsea and Brighton and two more Anfield dates against Arsenal and Crystal Palace.
The Dutchman has tended not to deviate much from his preferred starting XI over the past few months, even when LFC were in the thick of playing every three or four days as they balanced multiple commitments, but there may well be a few players hopeful of featuring more abundantly now that the pressure is off.
Federico Chiesa is surely one of those, having played just over half an hour in the Premier League all season, and one Liverpool-focused journalist has claimed that we might see a bit more of the Italian this month.
Chiesa backed to feature for Liverpool in final four games this season
In a Liverpool Confidential Q&A for the Daily Mail, Lewis Steele was asked why Slot has routinely overlooked the 27-year-old throughout the campaign.
While injury problems were cited as the primary factor for the forward’s sporadic appearances in his first few months at Anfield, a subdued performance in the Reds’ FA Cup defeat to Plymouth Argyle ‘really concerned the coaching staff’ and ‘set him back somewhat’ in his efforts to establish himself on Merseyside.
However, the journalist has backed Chiesa to be utilised in our upcoming fixtures, saying: “I would like to see Chiesa get some minutes in the next few weeks. His future is uncertain, to say the least, but he has not really had a chance to show Slot and co what he can do.
“The other reason is that he is the sixth-choice striker, so the others start or come on first through merit. It is a bit of a catch-22 for Chiesa but I am confident we will see him play some part in these final four games.”
Will Slot give Chiesa a chance to contribute for Liverpool this month?
That fateful cup exit at Home Park does seem to have been a seminal moment for the Italian at Liverpool, with the forward having played just twice since then, although one of those appearances was his goalscoring cameo in the Carabao Cup final defeat to Newcastle in March.
Alas, those Wembley exploits cut little ice with Slot in the longer-term, and such has been Chiesa’s lack of game-time at Anfield that Jose Mourinho is reportedly planning to exploit that by trying to lure him to Fenerbahce.
Even with the Premier League title already wrapped up, the Reds boss isn’t likely to hand out minutes to players on the periphery of his squad just for the sake of it, especially in matches against teams who still have everything to play for (such as top five-chasing Chelsea on Sunday).
However, with nothing but pride resting in Liverpool’s remaining matches this term, we’d like to see the head coach afford some game-time to those who’ve had precious little of it, and the Italy forward is probably the poster boy in that regard.
It’d certainly be worrying for his Anfield career if he weren’t to play any part in our final four games of the season, but hopefully Slot will reward the 27-year-old’s efforts at the AXA Training Centre with a few matchday outings between now and 25 May.
