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Arne Slot has detailed the impact Liverpool’s schedule is having on chances of game time for players like Federico Chiesa and Harvey Elliott this season.

Chiesa is among a few Liverpool players who have struggled for game time this season.



Alongside the likes of Wataru Endo and Elliott, the Italian has seen very little game time this season.

Chiesa, who joined the club last summer, has been an unused substitute in the last seven games in all competitions, and his last start for the club came in the 1-0 loss to Championship side Plymouth in the FA Cup.

Even with Cody Gakpo only half-fit, Slot opted against sending Chiesa on in midweek’s Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, with his midweek snub perhaps gives the clearest indication of his lowly position in the squad at present.

Ahead of the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, Slot has admitted that a lack of training time with his regular starters is affecting the chances of Chiesa and other players on the periphery.

“That’s, of course, more difficult because these players hardly train with the starters if you look at our schedule in the last three or four months,” Slot said when asked how many opportunities Chiesa and other fringe players have to impress him.

“So if we play, for example, on Saturday and then we play on Tuesday again, then on Sunday, the ones that played on Saturday only do a recovery session, so they’re not on the pitch.

“And then it’s the day before the game and it’s maybe 10, 15 minutes of tactics, where it’s more walking football than playing football.

“So there’s hardly ever a moment when they can compete with each other.

“But the day after the game, I’m always outside, my assistants have great exercises, and the players always show themselves in these moments.

“So those are moments to show where you are?

If you’ve improved, yes or no, and if you come closer to the players that are starting – and of course, when they come in [off the bench].

“I agree that for the ones that don’t start, it’s not an ideal world that we have so many games, that’s completely true.”

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