Federico Chiesa is up and running for Liverpool, The Italian scored his first goal for the Reds in only his fifth appearance, against Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup third round at the weekend

The only problem was it had taken the forward nearly five months to register those five appearances. And then for Arne Slot's side's very next game away at Nottingham Forest, he was back in familiar surroundings as he was left unused on the bench.

Evidently, Chiesa has not turned a corner to ignite his Anfield career just yet. But it was always going to prove tricky for him in England, at least at first.

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Denied a proper pre-season by Juventus after being deemed surplus to requirements in Turin, he was left playing catch-up from the moment he first joined Liverpool for an initial £10m back in August.

Injuries, illness and the intensity of English football have all contributed to Chiesa’s slow start, prompting reports in his homeland suggesting that he was unhappy on Merseyside, suffering from homesickness and could make a premature return to Serie A.

However, his agent has since dismissed the possibility of the 27-year-old leaving the Reds in January, insisting he will be staying put this season.

Speaking both before and after Chiesa’s goal against Accrington, head coach Slot challenged Chiesa to push on in the second half of the season but also warned not to get carried away by his performance against the League Two outfit.

This was perhaps reiterated by the fact the Euro 2020 winner was then left as an unused substitute - despite the absence of the suspended Darwin Nunez - when Liverpool returned to action away at Forest on Tuesday night. Substitute Diogo Jota equalised within seconds of coming on, but Chiesa was left watching on from the sidelines as the Reds tried in vain for a late winner.

Since returning from injury last month, the Italy international has played only twice. An unused substitute on five occasions, he has also been left out of the matchday squad on two occasions.

Scoring against Accrington was the next step for Chiesa, but there are still plenty more to take to reverse his fortunes. Left unused against Forest, it will not be an overnight transformation as Liverpool continue to manage him carefully.

Admittedly, he has a tough task on his hands to make a greater impact at Anfield regardless, given the fact that Mohamed Salah is ahead of him in the pecking order on the right-flank.

The Egyptian, who remains out of contract at the end of the season, is enjoying an extraordinary campaign to date. From 29 appearances so far, he has returned 21 goals and 17 assists.

Had Chiesa joined last season, it could have been a different story for the forward. Salah went off to the Africa Cup of Nations in January 2023 before suffering a hamstring injury. Missing for 12 matches, he would then struggle for form following his return.

Consequently, with his long-term future still uncertain, Chiesa is having to contend with the possibility of perhaps ‘right player, wrong time’ at Anfield. And how the second half of the season goes will ultimately decide if he is derided as a Liverpool transfer mistake or not.

Yet his quality is unquestioned, given what he has already achieved in the game with Italy, Juventus and Fiorentina. He was a star player for the Azzurri when they won Euro 2020, after all, with the Reds’ initial interest in him pre-dating such exploits.

But Chiesa is not the first player to find himself in such a scenario at Liverpool, struggling for game-time behind a world-class forward at the top of his game.

The Reds signed Iago Aspas from Celta Vigo in a £7m deal back in the summer of 2013, only to send him back to Spain after just one year after failing to make an impact as he was sent on loan to Sevilla.

He would score just once for Liverpool, coming in the FA Cup third round at Anfield against lower-league opposition in Oldham Athletic. Meanwhile, the Spaniard was starved of game-time as Luis Suarez enjoyed the season of his life - at least up until that point - and returned 31 goals and 14 assists from just 37 appearances.

Strike-partner Daniel Sturridge would also shine, offering 24 goals and seven assists from 33 appearances.

In contrast, Aspas only offered up that one solitary goal and one assist from a meagre 15 outings. Starting just six times under Brendan Rodgers, four of them came from the Reds’ first five Premier League matches in the absence of the suspended Suarez.

He would then have to wait until January for his next starts, selected for back-to-back matches against Hull City and Oldham. Opening his account in the latter, it would prove to be the final time he would be selected in Rodgers’ starting XI.

Aspas would ultimately only make four more appearances for Liverpool, totalling just 19 minutes of action, as he was predominantly an unused substitute while the Reds’ charged for the Premier League title.

His final appearance came in a 2-0 loss to Chelsea where he infamously passed a corner straight to William on the edge of the box in stoppage-time when trailing 1-0. Minutes later, the Brazilian would score the Londoners’ second and such a faux pas would remain supporters' lasting memory of the forward.

Unsurprisingly, Aspas was quickly written off as a Liverpool flop and sent packing back to Spain. But his record since returning to La Liga certainly suggests otherwise, and demonstrates why Reds bosses wanted to sign him in the first place.

The now 37-year-old returned to Celta Vigo in 2015 and has since established himself as a club legend. Combined with his first spell with the club, where he fired them to promotion before keeping them in La Liga, he boasts a whopping 210 goals from 510 appearances.

160 of those goals have come from 357 appearances since returning to the club. Consequently, there was a multi-year period in Spain when he was only being outscored by Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Suarez.

The highest-scoring Spanish player in La Liga in 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2021/22, such form would also earn him a call-up to the Spain squad, with the forward representing his country at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Suarez would leave Liverpool for Barcelona the same summer that Aspas returned to Spain. Without them, the Reds badly struggled offensively as Sturridge missed most of the season through injury, and Rodgers was infamously left to rely on the services of misfiring trio Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini.

Who knows how Aspas would have fared at Anfield had he stayed put or even joined a season later post-Suarez.

Aspas was ultimately unable to push on after his maiden Liverpool goal, before rebuilding his reputation back in his homeland. The Reds will hope that Chiesa does not now follow the same path.

If he does find himself unable to take the next steps at Anfield, it would be wrong to deride Chiesa as just a flop. Instead, like Aspas before him, perhaps they are just victims of circumstances.

Behind Suarez and Sturridge, Aspas was ultimately left unable to make any sort of impact as Liverpool fell agonisingly short in the 2013/14 Premier League title race. Fortunately for Chiesa, while there is a threat of Anfield history repeating itself, he still has half a season left to prove his worth.