‘It’s not enough’ – Arne Slot insists Liverpool star must ‘do better’ after Southampton cameo

Arne Slot insists Federico Chiesa must “do better” if he wants regular game time for Liverpool, claiming his promising cameo against Southampton in the Carabao Cup was “not enough”.

Liverpool booked their place in the semi-finals with a 2-1 win over the Saints on Wednesday, with first-half goals from Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliott enough to see Slot’s side through.

Slot made eight changed to his starting XI from the side that drew 2-2 with Fulham, with academy graduates Trey Nyoni and Tyler Morton given a chance to impress.

Chiesa was also handed an opportunity, replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold at half time, and produced a display which somehow proved he’s both a massive flop and a world class talent, depending which particular social media rabbit hole you fall into.

The Italy international had featured for just 78 minutes this season before coming off the bench against the Saints, with injury hampering his debut season at Anfield following his move from Juventus in the summer.

READ MORE: Chiesa a world-class flop who can replace Salah at Liverpool while not being fit to lace his boots

Slot was eager to point out after the game – in which Chiesa had some good moments and some less than good moments – that the fans are bound to see “ups and downs” from a footballer who’s been out for so long.

Slot said via HaytersTV: “I don’t know if we saw the same but I saw is what you can expect. If a player is out for five or six months, you cannot expect… I saw ups and downs.

“There were some really good moments and there were some moments where I felt, okay, you can do better than this.

“For me, that’s completely normal if a player’s been out for so long and plays his first game in five, six months. And I already said before, that makes it so difficult for me because normally in the pre-season, a player gets three, four or five games especially and then he’s only out for four or five weeks.”

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But Slot also told Chiesa that he needs to step up his game if he wants to force his way into the team as the Dutch boss has a number of excellent forwards to choose from.

“Now, he’s out for so long, to get him back to his best level is not easy but it was good to see that he showed some quality today. But same for him like for the youngsters, it’s not enough. To play at this level, you’ve got to compete with Mo Salah, Cody Gakpo, Lucho [Luis Diaz], Darwin [Nunez], Diogo [Jota].

“But it’s good to see that he’s back and he also had a few good moments in the game.”