Arne Slot has praised Federico Chiesa’s reaction to being left out of Liverpool’s Champions League squad.
The Italian forward was the most high-profile omission from the Reds’ 22-man ‘List A’ group for the league phase of European football’s elite club competition named last week, with 17-year-old sensation Rio Ngumoha included instead.
The decision casts yet more doubt upon Chiesa’s long-term Liverpool future following the bit-part role he has played at Anfield since arriving in a cut-price £12.5million transfer from Juventus last summer.
The 27-year-old has struggled for both form and fitness, battling injuries as he made only 14 appearances across all competitions last season, starting only once during Liverpool’s Premier League title-winning campaign but scoring in the Carabao Cup final defeat by Newcastle at Wembley.
However, Chiesa has already shown more glimpses of promise during the early stages of the new term, notching a crucial late goal on the opening day against Bournemouth and also appearing as a substitute in subsequent wins over both Newcastle and Arsenal.
Liverpool boss Slot has now admitted that Chiesa was understandably unhappy to be left out of his squad for the Champions League, but believes his positive response on the training pitch since has been pivotal moving forward.
“Of course, that is one of the most difficult things you have to do as a manager,” Slot told reporters ahead of Sunday’s trip to Burnley when quizzed on Chiesa’s omission.
“For a player not to play, that’s not always easy to tell him, but to not be in the squad is always more difficult.
“I just explained to him why we made this choice, and of course he wasn’t happy with that, but I think he understood my arguments.
“Not to say that he agreed with them – he didn’t tell me, by the way, that he didn’t agree with them – but he gave the answer you want to hear from a player.
“[He told me] that he will be to help the team in the cups and in the league – and that’s one thing to say, but I think he also showed this, because he wasn’t selected but he worked really hard to be ready for the upcoming games.
“That is even more important than what a player tells you.”
