Chiesa a world-class flop who can replace Salah at Liverpool while not being fit to lace his boots
The Federico Chiesa discourse on social media was an absolute joy. Having featured for just 78 minutes so far this season, he was predictably trending as soon as he came on for Liverpool, replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold at half-time, with the baying X masses extraordinarily ready to give their knee-jerk takes.
Half an hour into his 45-minute cameo he was a complete waste of space who’s not fit to lace Mohamed Salah’s boots let alone be his back-up or, God forbid, replace him should Liverpool fail to offer him enough money to keep him at Anfield.
By the end of the game he was clearly a world-class footballer who is actually Liverpool’s best winger after Salah and deserved two goals and an assist. If it weren’t for those pesky Southampton defenders who have conceded 36 Premier League goals this season and that goal-shy fop Diogo Jota who’s clearly in cahoots with the other Reds forwards bidding to keep Chiesa out of the team by not being Liverpool’s best finisher when it serves that purpose, he would have done.
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To be clear, not that you even needed to watch this game to come to this conclusion, Chiesa has neither proved that he’s sh*t nor brilliant on the basis of his first half of football for three months against the worst team in the Premier League, who were at that stage chasing the game and leaving themselves even more open at the back than they typically are.
There were good moments: the ball over the top for Jota; the nutmeg and curled shot that would have settled in the far corner had it not been blocked. They at least made up for the bad moments – the poor touches and misplaced passes – that can be entirely explained away by a lack of fitness and match sharpness in any case.
He showed enough to illustrate he can be of use to Liverpool this season, which doesn’t sound like much, but for a player whose injury problems have followed him from Juventus, who plays in the same position as the Premier League’s very best, it’s something.
Hope that he will be handed his second start of the season any time soon is misplaced with Arne Slot hardly a manager famed for rotation, with Salah never rested in the Premier League, and Harvey Elliott at least as likely as Chiesa to be the man to replace him given he scored and impressed here having also barely played this season.
Chiesa may still be a flop as a half of football against Southampton in the Carabao Cup provides scant evidence to support or refute that claim, but he may also prove to be an excellent and worthy addition by Liverpool. Again, we don’t and can’t know yet.
