Federico Chiesa to Liverpool was one of the surprise transfers of the summer, but everything that has unfolded since has left him a mere footnote on the campaign so far.

By Jack Lusby, ThisIsAnfield.com

Saturday’s 4-1 win over Ipswich saw Chiesa and Jayden Danns become the first players since George Latham in 1906 to win their first eight competitive appearances for Liverpool, though for the Italian it is far from the distinction he may have hoped for.

Seven of those eight games have come from the bench, with the sum total of Chiesa’s time on the pitch so far amounting to 190 minutes; an average of 23.8 minutes per outing, reduced to 18.7 minutes per substitute appearance.

He already has a goal and an assist to his name – a goal contribution every 95 minutes, if we’re keeping track – but the player himself will be the first to admit things have not panned out as he had hoped when he agreed to swap Juventus for Liverpool back in August.

Chiesa is, by and large, victim of the circumstances of that £12.5 million deal.

With contract talks having broken down at Juventus the decision was made to part ways with the 27-year-old in the summer, and he was subsequently frozen out of pre-season training in the buildup to the current campaign.

Barcelona, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Tottenham and AC Milan were among the clubs linked, but in waiting until the very end of the summer transfer window, Liverpool were able to finalise terms that would see them pay just £10 million up front.

That meant a player with 284 games’ experience for Fiorentina and Juventus and 51 caps for Italy including a winner’s medal from Euro 2020 joined the club for less than half the fee received from Brentford for Fabio Carvalho.

However, it also meant that Chiesa made the switch to a new country and a new league, with a significantly higher intensity, later than Arne Slot and his performance staff would have liked – Liverpool had already seen through a crucial first pre-season under the new head coach and played their first two league games before the No. 14 arrived.

But even then, there has been a surprise at the slow pace of Chiesa’s integration, with Slot in no rush to bring him into the fold, repeatedly referencing his lack of pre-season.

“He missed a complete pre-season, I’ve said this many times. And going to a league where the intensity may be higher than the Italian league, that makes it difficult for him to make the step towards the intensity levels the rest of the team is at,” he told reporters in one such update in October.

“That has not so much to do with the Italian league or Premier League but has more to do with him missing a complete pre-season. Then it is so difficult for every player to, when the games are constantly there, to build them up towards the levels we are at.”

That step up in intensity has been exacerbated by a series of setbacks, whether injury or illness, for a player whose enthusiasm and commitment simply cannot be questioned. Chiesa is unfortunate, rather than unwilling.

Such has been his positive attitude since moving to Liverpool along with wife Lucia Bramani that ongoing rumours linking him with a swift return to Serie A, either on loan or permanently, have been continually dismissed by sources on Merseyside.

This stance has been reinforced by Chiesa finally stepping up his game time in recent weeks: the 27-year-old has come off the bench in four of the last five games, scoring against Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup and gaining over an hour in his legs.

There is an urgency to his game that suggests he can complement Slot’s more regular core of attackers when fully fit, his ability to carve out opportunities for himself and others already hugely impressive given his lack of exposure.

Chiesa has already had 15 shots on goal in his eight appearances – one every 12.7 minutes – with Darwin Núñez (48.1 percent from 52 shots) the only Liverpool player with 10 or more shots to hit the target with a higher percentage than his 46.7 percent.

He is comfortably leading the squad for shots on target per 90 (3.26), which given his much smaller sample size speaks less about the rest of the team than it does his own eye for goal.

Liverpool certainly have a vacancy for another killer around the penalty area, and that Chiesa has already been used on both the left and right wings as well as up front earlier in the season suggests he could become a valuable squad option for Slot.

That makes the coming run of fixtures particularly key for both player and coach, perhaps starting with the Champions League closer at PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday night.

Part of an enthralling final night of the competition’s new league phase, Liverpool need only a point from their trip to the Netherlands to guarantee top spot, but will be seeking all three to make it eight wins from eight for a small piece of history.

There is a sense that Slot will not rotate against his old rivals as much as fans would perhaps like, but after a bright cameo against Lille last time out in Europe there is clearly an opportunity for Chiesa at least from the bench.

Also coming up is the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final at home to Tottenham and an FA Cup fourth-round trip to Championship strugglers Plymouth, sandwiched between league clashes with Bournemouth and Everton away.

Having come off the bench in four of the last five, Chiesa will surely be setting his sights on starting at least one of those next five and perhaps even more, which could allow Mohamed Salah a necessary rest on the right or reduce the workload on Luis Díaz as ad hoc striker.

When the time eventually comes for Chiesa it will certainly be viewed as belated, but there are already signs that Liverpool’s only summer signing will be a dangerous asset for Slot’s side and not an all-too-soon cast-off back to Serie A.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

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