Federico Chiesa sent stark warning by Arne Slot after making just one Liverpool start

Federico Chiesa has been told there’s no guarantee of game time at Liverpool as Arne Slot believes the summer signing will have to battle to get ahead of the Reds’ in-form forwards.

The Italy winger arrived on Merseyside in a £10m deal from Juventus right at the end of the transfer window. Chiesa, 27, had no pre-season as he had been cast aside at the Serie A club and arrived in Liverpool lacking fitness.

Since then he has managed only four appearances for the Reds - and one start - as injury, illness and fitness issues curtailed his game time. Chiesa is expected to get the chance to feature against Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup third-round tie.

And Slot insists he will be needed in a busy second half of the season but with Mo Salah in flying form and fitness on the right and Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz starring on the left, chances won’t come easy. “Every game is a chance for every player to get some playing time,” said the Liverpool boss.

“It is not only been difficult for him for all the things you just said in terms of match fitness - I'm not going to say all these things again - it is also that he has to compete with the likes of Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez and Mo Salah.

“And everybody here knows the numbers that Mo brings in... there are not many times or reasons to take him out during a game or before a game.

“Also because he is so fit. I've said many times before he was the fittest player who came back for pre-season and he does everything every single day to keep his match fitness and he wants to play every single game and he shows up every single game.

Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC) Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC)

“So it is not only about Federico when we are talking about his limited playing time it is also about the others but in terms of Federico he has to deal with the way he came in. The rest were already training a lot so we had to bring him up in terms of match fitness.

“It's a combination of reasons why he didn't play that much but let's wait and see in the coming weeks and months if he is able to help us because the second half of the season is even more important than the first half.”

Liverpool face League Two side Accrington Stanley in the third round with the clubs not having faced each other since 1959. But they are linked by the famous milk campaign advert in 1989 and the quote ‘Who are they?’ when the name Accrington Stanley was mentioned.

Slot has seen it and the video of Accrington forward and Reds fan Josh Woods celebrating wildly when the draw was made for the third round last month. “I don’t know that much because I am only here for half a year but I do know about the milk advert,” said Slot.

“Probably everyone knows this. After the draw there was a video about a player who was so happy he was going to play at Anfield so these kind of things I know.

“I know people from this area also play for the club. And of course I know a lot about the team and today I will know even more about because we are going to dive into it even more.”

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