Below is a summary of the full article. Click here for the full version or go back to LFC Live.net

It has been a damaging five days for Liverpool as they exited the UEFA Champions League via penalties against Paris Saint-Germain and then went onto lose the Carabao Cup Final, rewarding Newcastle United with their first major trophy in seventy years.

In Sunday’s final, the Reds’ performance was pitiful with goals from Dan Burn and Alexander Isak either side of half-time seeing their hopes of back-to-back Carabao Cup triumphs flattened.

Federico Chiesa was Liverpool’s only scorer on the day, but struck too late to sustain any sort of comeback, with the game well beyond reach at the time of his ninety-fourth minute consolation.

The Italian featured for just sixteen minutes and managed to make a valuable impact and we will be discussing why his manager, Arne Slot, should instill more belief in his player, following a bit-part role for most of this season.

THE CARABAO CAMEO

During what was a dire cup final showing from his side, Arne Slot felt the need to call upon Federico Chiesa to try and salvage any ounce of pride for Liverpool.

Chiesa entered the pitch alongside Harvey Elliott in the seventy-fourth minute as the Reds were in desperate need of a route back into the match, with so little left.

Having played a mere total of just 387 minutes this season, Chiesa has been left frustrated at the lack of an opportunity, whilst also having to deal with niggling injury and fitness issues that have hindered his development at Anfield, but his Wembley cameo was certainly something to take note of.

In just sixteen minutes, the winger won one-hundred per cent of his duels on a day where Liverpool were surprisingly second best in that department, one-hundred per cent of tackles won, drawn three fouls and scored a goal.

He brought the energy and desire that had been lacking from the beginning.

A rare sighting from a Liverpool team.

Federico Chiesa numbers in full vs Newcastle:

17 touches.

GLARING FORWARD ISSUES

Over the course of this season, Liverpool haven’t managed to be at their free-flowing best, but have been able to grind out victories in the most important times, leading to them on the brink of the Premier League title – boasting a twelve-point lead over Arsenal.

Mohamed Salah’s record-breaking goalscoring campaign has been a huge factor in this, but when the Egyptian has a rare off day, the other two attackers will need to step up.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case for large periods of the season.

Having been unable to score in one-hundred and twenty minutes against PSG, Arne Slot continued to stick with Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota partnering Salah, but it was most definitely a decision that backfired for the Dutchman.

Both players are enduring terrible ruts of form where their true ability is a no show in the decisive moments, leading to just 21 goals from a combined 72 matches across all competitions.

Liverpool can’t rely on the individual brilliance of Mohamed Salah forever

David Rawcliffe/Getty Images.

Darwin Núñez continues to struggle for consistency, whilst Cody Gakpo is being asked to play minutes when it’s clear to see that he is not fully fit, following a month injury lay-off.

As for Chiesa, Slot just hasn’t been able to instill his full belief into the forward, leading to a severe lack of game time.

All of these factors are why Mohamed Salah has had to consistently drag Liverpool over the line in many games this season, with a huge reshuffle of the club’s forward line needed come the summer.

PLAYERS NEED ROTATING

Arne Slot has persisted with the same eleven players as part of his starting side for the majority of the season, barring minor changes, and the Dutchman has remained persistent on keeping the same crop of players together whilst the Reds continue to win football matches.

Ten alterations were made for the shock FA Cup fourth-round defeat to Plymouth last month, but since then, Slot has opted for a maximum of just three changes per-game.

This has arose eyebrows towards the obvious question on a lack of squad rotation, leading to a potential problem with fatigue in consecutive cup disappointments, last week.

With Luis Díaz, Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah all below the mark in such an important game at Wembley, it begs the question as to why Federico Chiesa wasn’t brought on earlier than the seventy-fifth minute, and perhaps Slot should have been braver with the timing of certain substitutions.

Supporters have been calling for rest and rotation during the busy schedule, whilst Chiesa’s cameo on Sunday could now lead to an eye-opening assessment for Slot over his squad management.

SLOT ON LACK OF MINUTES FOR CHIESAPA Images.

The boss name-checked Federico Chiesa alongside Harvey Elliott when mentioning his reasoning for both players receiving a lack of minutes, prior to the Carabao Cup Final defeat, blaming the fixture schedule for having a detrimental impact on his rotational options.

Slot said, “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.”

“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

There’s hardly ever a moment where they can compete with each other.”

“For the ones that don’t start, it’s not an ideal world that we have so many games.”

Now, the Liverpool players will be jetting off to their respective countries for international duty, but Federico Chiesa is one of the few to be left behind.

Following the instant impact at Wembley, many supporters will be hoping that the Italian will be able to play an important role for the remainder of the season.

Arne Slot may not have been able to trust Chiesa at first, but right now, he has no reason not to with fellow forwards misfiring.

Liverpool will return to Premier League action in fifteen days, where they’ll face Everton at Anfield on April 2nd.

Want to get the latest Liverpool news direct to your phone
For more news relating to Arsenal, visit our sister site AFC Latest Live.