Arne Slot has clear stance on surprise Federico Chiesa transfer amid Liverpool struggles

Liverpool has yet to reap much reward from its summer 2024 transfer business. Federico Chiesa, the sole player signed to represent the Reds this season has barely played and is now even being linked with a loan move away.

Arne Slot was quick to shoot the rumors down in his press conference ahead of Liverpool’s Carabao Cup tie with Brighton. Even so, it’s easy to see how such stories can be dreamed up.

Chiesa has made just three appearances for the Reds. Even allowing for one being a start – in which he assisted an equalizer for Diogo Jota – his Liverpool playing time amounts to just 78 minutes in total. But despite being unsure about when the Italian will return from injury, Slot made clear that a supposed loan move back to Serie A is not on the cards.

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“That hasn't gone through my mind at all,” he said. “I think first and foremost is that he gets fit again, and then we can see where he is.

“There were reports in Italy, what I meant about him was he missed pre-season, and in pre-season he was on low intensity sessions because he had to train with three or four players apart from the group. Going from there to a high intensity league, to a high intensity playing style, is difficult in general for every player, but especially if you had a pre-season like this.

“We knew this before, so we knew we had to be really careful and adjust where we could to his individual needs, but it hasn't been perfect yet so we're trying to find the right way of building him up without overloading him, and that has been difficult till now, but I have full confidence that will happen,” Slot added.

It is such a shame that Chiesa is currently unavailable as he would surely have started on Wednesday against Brighton. If the Reds win the tie, they will play every weekend and midweek between now and Christmas. Even a defeat will only leave one midweek open, and that doesn’t come around until mid-December.

The squad is going to be tested to its limits. Only Virgil van Dijk is older than Mohamed Salah, with the Egyptian inevitably needing to be rested more this season than will have happened under Jürgen Klopp. Chiesa, the prime candidate for cover, could have picked up a lot of playing time.

But even though that looks unlikely to happen for a while, Slot is clear that the Euro 2020 winner will not be returning to play in Italy any time soon.