“You can do better than this” – Arne Slot’s clear message to recent Liverpool signing



Liverpool manager Arne Slot has made it clear he expects better from summer signing Federico Chiesa after he made a rare appearance in last night’s Carabao Cup tie with Southampton.

The Reds won 2-1 at the St Mary’s Stadium to progress into the semi-finals of the competition, but Chiesa perhaps didn’t do enough with his opportunity to show Slot what he’s capable of.

Liverpool talisman makes FIRM decision on his future

Speaking after the game, the Dutch tactician praised some of what he saw from Chiesa, though overall his message to the Italy international was clear – that he’s capable of contributing more.

See below for Slot’s quotes, as relayed by journalist Fabrizio Romano on X…

??? Arne Slot on Federico Chiesa: “It's good to see that he's back and that he had a few good moments in the game”.

"I saw some really good moments and I saw some moments where I felt like: ok you can do better than this. It’s normal”. pic.twitter.com/ZI9JgG1y3t

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 19, 2024

Chiesa joined Liverpool in the summer and initially looked like he could make a useful addition to the Liverpool squad, but so far we’ve seen very little from the 27-year-old.

It remains to be seen if Chiesa can turn things around for himself at Anfield, but he surely needs to be making the most of first-team outings like this if he is to win over Slot.

What next for Federico Chiesa and Liverpool?

Federico Chiesa in action for Liverpool (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Liverpool have pretty good squad depth in attack at the moment, with Chiesa, in fairness to him, facing competition from big names like Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota.

That hasn’t made it easy for the former Juventus man to break into the LFC line up, but it also raises questions about whether this signing was really needed at all.

It could perhaps also mean that if Chiesa gets offers to leave Liverpool in the near future, then it’s hard to imagine the Merseyside giants putting up much of a fight to keep him.


 

Chiesa had a good career in Serie A before his move to the Premier League, so one imagines there’d be plenty of Italian clubs ready to take him back.

It might be that Liverpool would do well to offload Chiesa and focus on strengthening elsewhere in their squad.