Arne Slot has shown how he'll deal with unhappy Liverpool star with behaviour on team bus

Arne Slot has already shown he can handle unhappy players in the dressing room after admitting Federico Chiesa was upset at being snubbed for Liverpool's upcoming Champions League campaign

Arne Slot has already proven his ability to manage disgruntled players using a method that's "worth its weight in gold". The Liverpool boss admitted last week that Federico Chiesa was unhappy after being omitted from his Champions League squad.

The Italian forward, 27, will miss out on representing the English champions in the competition's league phase, with the manager selecting 17-year-old wonderkid Rio Ngumoha ahead of the Euro 2020 champion.

Chiesa made a vital contribution in August by scoring the Reds' opening day winner against Bournemouth. However, despite featuring in each of Liverpool's first four Premier League matches, he has managed fewer than 50 minutes of playing time in total.

He likely would have secured a place in the squad had the club succeeded in completing the deadline day signing of Marc Guehi. That's because new arrival Giovanni Leoni, who cannot be registered on Liverpool's homegrown spot, might have been excluded instead, as Slot wouldn't have required an additional defensive option.

Chiesa ultimately fell victim to Slot's decision, and the Dutch boss acknowledged before Sunday's trip to Burnley that the player was disappointed. "Of course, that is one of the most difficult things you have to do as a manager," Slot said.

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"For a player not to play, it is not always easy to tell them but not to be in the squad is always more difficult. I just explained to him why we made this choice. Of course, he wasn’t happy with that.

"I think he understood my arguments - that is not to say he agreed with them. He didn’t tell me, by the way, that he didn’t agree with them! But he gave me the answer you want to hear from a player, that he will be there to help the team in the cups and in the league.

"That’s one thing to say but I think he also showed this because he wasn’t selected but he worked really hard these days to be ready for the upcoming days. That is even more important than what a player tells you."

According to Panathinaikos striker Cyriel Dessers, Slot knows exactly how to handle such tricky situations and his man-management skills will undoubtedly prevent the matter from escalating any further. The Nigeria international once found himself in a similar position when Slot decided to bench his then-star striker at Feyenoord.

But the head coach managed to turn Dessers' thinking around with an honest conversation on the team bus, which ended up changing the player's entire career trajectory.

Dessers recalled: "When I was at Feyenoord, there was a match Arne Slot started with Bryan Linssen instead of me against Heerenveen. I was so disappointed.

“I came on ten minutes before the end. It was freezing cold, the match was already over, nobody really wanted to go forward. I came on with a really poor attitude because I was so disappointed that I wasn't allowed to start.

"After the match, Slot sat next to me on the bus. I've had managers who got angry in such a situation. But he actually said in a very normal and calm way that he understood how I felt.

"He also explained why he had made his choice. I apologised, he said again that he could imagine my emotions. I walked back to the back of that bus and felt like it was out of my system. I still think back to that one conversation sometimes. There, Arne proved to me that he is not only a good manager, but also a good person.

"I sometimes miss that empathy in football with the media, with the fans too, who sometimes forget that a player is only human. The world of football is hard, sometimes unreasonable. So it's worth its weight in gold if you have a manager who treats you normally, honestly and with understanding."

Liverpool's Champions League journey kicks off on Wednesday evening as they host Spanish giants Atletico Madrid at Anfield.

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