At the risk of being labelled “knee-jerky” but how is a bloke who played 2,500 minutes last season, including the majority of the last 15 games still not match fit by the end of December.
I know playing for us is a different beast from playing for Juve and he’s had a few niggles along the way but it is rather odd seeing him in and out the squad and then not getting any minutes when he is in if the aim is to get him match fit.
He missed almost all of preseason over a combination of being removed from Juve’s plans and injury and a couple of times as they have started getting him up to speed he has had a niggle and had to backwards steps. I think there were also concerns over how well physically prepared Allegri had his players last year so is likely starting from an even bigger deficit.
It seems they are just being super cautious in the fortunate situation of being able to take that path.
He’s also not exactly a priority to get back into the squad given that he’s probably not as good as our other options.
He might have played last season when not 100% fit - compounding the longer term issues, that we now seem to be addressing correctly
Didn’t know about the Juve stuff so makes a bit more sense I suppose.
Hopefully the League and FA Cup games give him a chance for some minutes and it’s the start of seeing him in the squad and on the pitch more often.
Do we knew what his latest illness was? Flu possibly?
With him struggling to gain fitness rather than an actual injury, I’m worried that he might have something similar to Mario Götze, myopathy of some description.
What’s the obsession with him?
Club knew about the injury concerns but were ready to take a small risk on him with the low fee.
We signed him as a 6th choice attacker so why are people expecting a miracle here? Is it because he was our only signing?
Hope he can start in the FA Cup or even come on from bench in the League Cup. If not fine. We have enough players.
PTSD probably. Seems like so many fans are so desperate to believe we’re selling all our best players and the rest are all crocks.
It’s amusing though that the last player that fit this pattern of coming from Juventus having been frozen out of their pre-season, managed to play 1996 minutes across 33 league games in the next season, for his next club.
Not to mention Chiesa himself managed a respectable 2206 minutes across 33 league games last season. I think it’s mostly just been bad luck. After all, he has already managed what, 2 games with us?
We need a fall guy.
What, are we selling Núñez this window?
Good point.
Chiesa needs game time to get more flak.
its hardly an obsession, and people arent exactly slagging him off in droves…
the legitimate comment here though, is that we are in Jan 2025, and the lad we bought in august cant get in the match day squad becuase he cant get himself in the right condition… its a legitimate concern to discuss, to which one or two posters have tried to speculate as to why that would be, (which is appreciated) and one or two more have interpretted it as malicious and writing the guy off.
for his own sake, its a shame the guy hasnt been able to impose himself on the squad a bit more…some light has been shed on the matter, all good…
If we really want to be cynical, we should turn the attention to decision makers and decision making process that led Liverpool to signing him. We’ve been burned by Italian sides before (Salah and Alisson were welcome changes from that) but I still wonder which criteria led club’s transfer department to think that they would be able to “rebuild” his body of sorts and turn him back into the player he was before his ACL injury and subsequent issues.
It’s a shame that his Liverpool career has taken such a strange turn because he looked like someone who was genuinely happy to be at Liverpool - and not in the sense of “I won the lottery”. That said, knowing the injury issues that were suffered by the most technically gifted Liverpool players I’ve seen (i.e. Alcantara, Lallana, Sturridge, Kewell), I’d be very happy to write off his debut season to resolve his fitness in the long-term if it meant that he would be able to properly contribute to the Liverpool cause over the next four or five years.
It was a relatively low-risk signing with massive potential upside. He’s not the future at RW, but if he can get his fitness up to the required standard, he has potential to be a hell of a backup option to have there.
Only room for one…
Over the years, and the trickery he is capable of with the ball at his feet from this guy, it seems obvious, he will have been hacked away at by numerous ‘yard-dog’ defenders, in their attempt at stopping him in his tracks.
None of us know for certain if that has taken a toll on his many moving, and fragile parts within his skeletal frame. Most damage or injury, as we know, will always need time to heal again… 6days, 6weeks or 6months… with applied physio to aid full/best recuperation results.
Unfortunately, these ‘unseen’ injuries, unlike a broken leg with a plaster casting hoisted up in traction for example… they are not as obvious.! See someone laying in a hospital bed in that state, there is an automatic, common-sense acceptance, the guy won’t be playing at the week-end, the week after, or the many weeks and months after that… Just because we can’t see the injury, doesn’t mean it is not there, and again, just because we can’t see it, doesn’t mean it/they, are not healing to full fitness…
Worst scenario, this season for Chiesa is written off as a lost cause. However, come next season, after what would have been a 12month rehabilitation at Anfield, under the supervision and guidance of some really good doctors, we could have an exceptional player on our hands…
There is a lot of words posted here, but to me Slot’s explanation is by far the simplest and best.
He was frozen out by Juve and as a result his match fitness just isn’t there.
Give him time. He’ll be fine.
LOL…isnt that the whole idea of this kind of place?
Haha @Mascot
I mean, his few minutes thus far have already given us one assist and plenty of decent signs about his level. As I noted above, he’s also had a substantial amount of minutes for Juventus last season. If I recall correctly, the reason he didn’t have any pre-season with Juventus was because he didn’t want to extend his contract so they were trying to sell him off?
All of which add up to promising points. I think it’s far too early to be writing him off. I thought we should all be aware by now how important a proper pre-season can be in terms of establishing fitness and rhythm, so I’m more than happy to give him the benefit of the doubt.