Arne Slot’s contentious selection decision for Liverpool’s latest in a long litany of defeats was a gamble, alright, but whether it has paid off is anybody’s guess at this stage.
Crystal Palace secured a 3-0 win at Anfield against a second-string home side, and Liverpool are now out of the Carabao Cup. But the tactical fault lines run far deeper, and the Reds know that their upcoming run of games will prove decisive in exactly how the club emerge from this dismal run of form.
Aston Villa travel to Merseyside at the weekend, and then next week’s double header of Real Madrid and Manchester City will perhaps show exactly how Slot will fare over the coming months.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Liverpool have one of the most talented and expensive squads in the world, after all, and have seen a few stars go from strength to strength over the past several months.
Chief among them is the tireless Dominik Szoboszlai, but, despite his smaller role, Federico Chiesa has been just as impressive.
How Chiesa is rebuilding his Liverpool career
Liverpool only signed one player during the 2024 summer transfer window: Chiesa. What a contrast to the window just passed. The Italian arrived for a cut-price £12.5m fee, but injuries and Slot’s wariness kept him on the fringes.
The 28-year-old has enjoyed quite the revival this season, among the most prolific players in Slot’s squad. Despite starting only two matches in all competitions (both of the Reds’ domestic cup fixtures), he has notched two goals and three assists.
And still he waits for his first Premier League start of the season. Chiesa is earning starts on tournamental fronts but will perhaps feel somewhat aggrieved by sitting in the centre on Wednesday evening, flanked as he was by teenagers Rio Ngumoha and Kieran Morrison.
Hugo Ekitike
13
6 (1)
Mohamed Salah
13
4 (3)
Cody Gakpo
13
4 (3)
Federico Chiesa
10
2 (3)
Alexander Isak
8
1 (1)
Florian Wirtz
13
0 (3)
Rio Ngumoha
7
1 (0)
Chiesa has in the past proved he has the talent to sit alongside the world’s best forwards. He has been deeply unfortunate with injuries, but his mental fortitude and underlying talent are beginning to shine, and there is a real chance for him to lay down a marker over the coming months, especially when you consider Mohamed Salah will be away at AFCON come January.
Liverpool's new version of Chiesa
Last season, Chiesa drifted through Liverpool’s title-winning campaign. Clearly, he was a talented player who had the skills to make a mark, but for whatever reason, Slot opted against unleashing him.
Now that he’s seen Calvin Ramsay put in a fine showing against Crystal Palace, the Dutch coach may want to avoid repeating that same mistake. Right-back Ramsay has not played much football over the past several years, but he showed what he can do against the Eagles.
The 22-year-old was composed on the ball and looked to progress play forward when the chance arose. In the first half, he played a Trent-esque diagonal cross over to Ngumoha, demonstrating a range of strings on his bow.
Liverpool signed Ramsay from Aberdeen in July 2022, adding him to the squad for an initial £4m fee. Jurgen Klopp once said “the sky is the limit” for the one-cap Scotland international, but a low-hanging fog has clouded his potential over the past three years, restricting him to just three first-team appearances for the Merseysiders and a string of unsuccessful loan spells.
But there’s a real player in there.
Against Palace, the Scotsman won six duels, made seven recoveries and four clearances, as per Sofascore. Promising stuff, even if the rust was clear to see, losing the ball 19 times despite not creating a chance.
Like Chiesa, Ramsay has been shaken by injuries over the past several years, and at the early stage of his career, this has had a detrimental impact on his hopes of getting going at the highest level.
Liverpool have lost six of their past seven matches in all competitions, with that emphatic win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League an outlier born from the Germans’ own deep defensive deficiencies.
Analytical Reds writer Sam McGuire even said that Slot’s decision to exclude Ramsay previously is “a sackable offence”. Of course, we must take this as tongue in cheek, but it does underline the quality of talent Liverpool have in this Scottish defender, and it’s certainly frustrating that he is now unavailable for the men’s team over the next few months.
Chiesa stands a real chance of continuing to go from strength to strength in Liverpool’s senior squad this year, adding a dimension that Slot simply cannot ignore.
With Jeremie Frimpong not quite a natural full-back and Conor Bradley’s performances leaving something to be desired, might there not be a chance for Ramsay to sneak his way into the club’s plans too?
The defeat to Crystal Palace, the third of the campaign, emphasised the scale of Liverpool’s plight at the moment, with wholesale changes and a bench full of youngsters backing firing on a head coach who now stares down the barrel of a gun, preparing to take on some of Europe’s most threatening outfits.
He will need every tool at his disposal, and allowing Ramsay to taste some more action might not be the worst thing in the world for a side currently lacking solutions.