Federico Chiesa’s debut season has been quite peculiar. He will conclude it as a Premier League champion with Liverpool, yet his contribution has been minimal.
In fact, he only made his fifth league appearance—the minimum required to secure a winner’s medal—during the loss to Chelsea in early May, after the title had already been clinched.
Injuries have hindered his participation, but it is difficult to ignore the impression that Arne Slot lacks significant confidence in the Italian player.
With merely two goals scored across all competitions, both in domestic cups and none in the league or Champions League, Chiesa’s performance has been largely disappointing.
He finally received his first Premier League start for Liverpool against Brighton, but he failed to persuade fans that Slot had erred in not utilizing him earlier.
As the stats show, his performance only furthered Slot’s argument for keeping him from the action for most of the season.
While he was tidy on the ball, completing 6/6 attempted passes, he failed to make much of an impact on proceedings.
He had just 13 touches of the ball, failed to complete any of his dribbles (0/1), and won just one of his eight attempted duels.
He did manage two key passes but this wasn’t enough to get himself a goal or an assist.Harvey Elliott opened the scoring, before Yasin Ayari levelled things.
On the stroke of half-time, Dominik Szoboszlai fired in, what looked to be a cross but found the back of the net to make it 2-1. However, goals from Kaoru Mitoma and Jack Hinshelwood turned things around after the break as Brighton claimed a 3-2 win.