Federico Chiesa was Liverpool’s only signing for this season last summer, with the Italian international having an underwhelming first year in England.

Injuries have plagued the winger’s time in the Premier League with the attacker making just 11 appearances in all competitions for Liverpool, with Chiesa managing 387 minutes of action, scoring two goals and assisting another two.

As a result, Chiesa has been linked with a move back to Italy in the summer transfer window, though the Liverpool star’s father has disputed these rumours by claiming that the former Juventus star is happy at Anfield.

And Arne Slot has now weighed in on what he thinks about Chiesa and how the winger has performed in his first season at Liverpool.

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Speaking to the press ahead of Liverpool’s Merseyside derby clash with Everton, Slot shared how he has been impressed with Chiesa whenever he’s featured for the Reds, though the Dutch coach admits injury problems have been more frequent than expected.

Slot said when asked about Chiesa and his impact at Liverpool this season: “It wasn’t that I didn’t see a lot of him in training sessions because of so many games, but because it was more than he wanted and more than we wanted with injuries.

“But it was good to see that he impacted the game when he came on, that is what has happened a lot this season, so it’s good to see.

It’s partly my job but also the player’s job to be ready when the moment comes.

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“He’s also in competition with Mohamed Salah, and I don’t think you can deny that Mo has had quite a good season, so that makes it sometimes tough for him.

But we know that we can trust him the moment we need him.”

Chiesa’s future was bound to be in the spotlight heading into the summer given the nature of the Italian transfer rumour mill and how little the 27-year-old attacker has played for Liverpool this season.

Yet after Slot’s comments this morning, there appears to be a real chance that Chiesa could now be staying at Liverpool for another season given how much the Anfield boss seems to rate the former Juventus star.

Indeed, Chiesa has shown plenty of quality whenever given a chance to feature for Liverpool, and the winger could be transformed next year after a real pre-season and time to fully recover from his injuries over the summer.


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