Agree.
Partly cause there’s a good player there and mostly the fact that he’s got a banging song which can’t stay out of my head.
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Re game time, he will have a favourable chance when Mo’s off at the AFCON. His natural competitor would be Frimpong in that slot I imagine.
I also think that Slot learnt a very valuable lesson last season regarding the requirement to rotate more to keep the team fresh for the greater demands in the English game. He’s said as much himself, so we may start seeing Mo rested for “easier” PL games when we have midweek CL action also. Or Mo being hauled off before the end of the game, which is always…fun.
I’m with you, it would be disappointing if he leaves, and as Sith says, a banging song to boot.
All that said, if he’s transferred out, I imagine it’s at a higher fee than we paid for him. We’re at a bit of a win win I feel.
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Yeah, plans are one thing, Chiesa’s wishes are something else.
He will surely not want a similar situation like last season. Either he stays and plays more or he goes. I think he’s closer to leaving than staying.
Italy look at Chiesa as one of their key players when he’s fit and he’s not even playing enough to be in their squads.
His reputation is surely still pretty high in Serie A as well. No way he will remain a Liverpool 5th or 6th forward for a long time, it’s not enough.
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This is my concern as well. Credit to club for being able to develop a lot of these kids to the level where club can make a significant profit on them while giving them the opportunity to play football at a high level but I’d like to see more of them breaking into the first team. The place seems cursed with injuries, though, a lot of these kids are getting some rather serious ones just as they are about to kick on.
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That’s where a 2 club model helps.
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What I don’t get with Chiesa thing is even after the title was wrapped up he only got 70 odd minutes (8, 0, 63, 0) in four games. That 63 minutes against Brighton was about 60% of his total league minutes for the season.
Slot can say he wants him around but even with nothing on the line he barely played him.
I’d be happy letting him go back to Italy and picking up a young developmental type player instead. Or just give Doak the spot in the squad instead even if you don’t think he’s a long term option.
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When finished our transfer window last summer, I said we have on paper the best attack in the league.
Not liking a struggling Nunez (though 18 goals and 15 assists was pretty good in 23/24) aside, look at the 6 players we had assembled for 3 forward positions:
All internationals, all at least posing some sort of danger in their own way, all at least mobile if not fast, all can score goals and almost all of them can play in at least one position.
Reputation wise, that was an impressive little group.
With Chiesa though, I thought he could be more delighted with the move here than us.
And I felt it might be hard to keep all 6 happy for a long time.
Whether it’s 5 or 6 (I don’t want 4 or 7), I hope we keep striving for having that sort of quality and depth going forward.
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We did just win a title with 4 academy players in the first team squad. I dont think we can reasonably complain about not seeing enough get their shot. I just think that in this present moment out best kids are likely not developed enough to provide much support this coming season.
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DiMarzio says that Napoli are negotiating with Chiesa’s agent. Not sure if this warrants a thread on its own, though, but there are more and more reports of Chiesa leaving Liverpool this summer.
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Hope he stays to be honest. We can file under Litmanen, Sahin if not. Players who could have lit us up, but just didn’t get the chances.
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I think I didn’t express my thought correctly - it was more of a lament over their misfortune with injuries, rather than lack of quality or chances afforded. I don’t have data to compare that amount of injuries to their counterparts at Man City, Man United, Chelsea etc. but I have enough reasons to worry about their long-term prospects looking at the amount and severity of injuries these lads are suffering. Even Jones, a well established first team member now, has had his fair share of injuries that got me thinking if he’d ever be able to consistently play for Liverpool.
File under ‘was maybe worth a gamble but not good enough’
Go ahead and start the thread.
I do think he’s leaving fwiw although I would want him to stick around this season considering salah has the Afcon.
We don’t know that because he never got the chance to prove himself.
If we do end up selling him, it’ll be a shame and a waste, especially if he ends up at Napoli with that prick, Conte reaping the benefits of all the work the club physios and himself put in.
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People seem to forget when making this point Slot was seeing him day in day out in training. Thats more than likely where the reluctance to play him comes from.
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There were also a number of comments from Slot early last season about taking our time to get his fitness levels up to where the rest of the squad was at due to struggling with injuries post knee surgery, and would likely befit from the time focusing on his fitness this season, so there is a strong chance that he wasn’t in the best and needed that extra time to get his body right.
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I really hope Chiesa stays at least another season. With his injuries (fingers crossed) behind him and a full preseason under his belt, it would be nice to see what he’s really capable of for us.
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But that doesn’t explain why he didn’t get to play much once the title was sealed. Mo wanted to break records on a personal level, but it would have been an ideal opportunity to give Chiesa a run in the team. Instead he got an hour or so.
I wouldn’t blame him for being pissed off.
I’m getting the feeling that club will be making more pragmatic decisions now that Edwards, Hughes and Slot are those calling the shots in their respective positions. Ironically, buying Chiesa might have been one, selling him might be another.
That’s why I’ve been certain for the past two months or so that Chiesa would leave, though I can’t say if it will be loan or a permanent move. Either way, I hope he does well but he’s done nothing to allay fears I had about this move last summer.
He didnt really though. When you are playing 2 games a week most of your training is some form of active recovery or light game preparation for the next game, not the sort of stuff that allows a player on the outside to really challenge a regular for the shirt. That is why Chiesa spent so much time on an individualized plan because the sort of training the team was doing “day in and day out” wasnt geared to bringing a player up to match fitness.
It was made clear he was bought for the long term, not for what he’d bring in the immediate or short term. Kind of almost the Liverpool of way of old that our big improvements come not from the players we just signed but from the players we signed the year before who with a year under the belt of learning the liverpool way are now ready to play. That’s why I’d still be surprised if we junked the project at this point. Slot would have to to have had a really negative view of him to give up already. Or maybe we see an opportunity to do something else that requires we make room.
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