A New Beginning, or the Last Flames of a Dream

When Liverpool signed Federico Chiesa last year, Arne Slot made a small gamble. Brought in for a low fee, the Italian saw injuries derail his first season.

With the forward starting the season well, the question about his future looms over his revival.

Arriving in Liverpool for a minuscule fee, when compared to this summer’s bonanza, Chiesa promised to be the ultimate reclamation project. Inside the often-injured player lay a top-class winger. For Slot, this seemed to be a worthy challenge.

Since tearing his ACL in 2022, Chiesa’s promising career never got back on track. By the end of his tenure at Juve, the Italian went from the next Del Piero to the next Bernardeschi. In desperate need of a new start, Liverpool offered him a lifeline.

After spending last season as a bust, Chiesa has already saved Liverpool quite a few times this season. Despite these performances, they mostly came from appearances off the bench. Quality starts remain hard to come by for the Italian, making his future increasingly murky.

In 2021, Chiesa electrified Europe with his performances at the EUROs, but now he’s fighting for his career.

While the dreams of being a top player may be gone, there remains a path for him to be an impactful player.

Liverpool, despite being second, started the season in an unconvincing manner. Multiple games saw the team struggle, only for Chiesa to help try to rescue them.

Chiesa, Liverpool’s new savior, spent much of last season glued to the bench. Either injuries or poor performances kept him as an afterthought’s afterthought. In all honesty, most expected him to return to Italy in the summer, having seen another chance slip away.

Instead, a Liverpool side that still appears to be a work in progress needs him. A surprisingly bare frontline continues to underperform, giving Chiesa a shot. The Italian took that chance, using it to revive his career as a super sub.

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This resurgence clearly took the team by surprise, as Slot thought so little of Chiesa that he originally left him off the Champions League roster. Another injury to another Italian player, Giovanni Leoni, gave the forward yet another lifeline.

An aging Salah, underperforming Wirtz, and adapting Isak made this offense rather weak. Without players like Luis Díaz, Slot’s team lacks the dynamism that helped propel the Reds to the title last season. While clearly not at the same level as the Colombian, Chiesa still provides that bite towards the tail end of games.

It does beg the question of how Chiesa fits into this squad once everyone is off and running. Likely, the Italian returns to the bench as a backup in case of an emergency-type player. However, for this Liverpool side, they do desperately need that release valve.

Chiesa’s early-season success creates a bit of a predicament for the club.

Do they treat him as a super sub or a true role player?

After the 2021 EUROs, no player seemed to have left the tournament like Chiesa. The winger showed signs of star potential with Juve, but this was on another level.

The almost sudden drop off, caused by injuries in Chiesa’s case, mirrors that of another Italian prospect. Another tricky winger who broke the mold of what to expect from Italian youngsters.

Much as the 2021 EUROs played the stage for Chiesa, Stephan El Shaarawy used the 2012 Serie A season to announce himself to the world. AC Milan seemed to have found their next superstar in the Italian, especially with the way he broke out at an early age. The winger’s silk-like dribbles got him past any defender, allowing him enough space to find teammates in the box.

Again, as with Chiesa, injuries and regression caused him to fall further down the bench in Milan. Eventually, Roma allowed him to kickstart his career, but as a role player. Getting the occasional start, but mostly as a player to fill in off the bench.

El Shaarawy has never won anything major since his career shift, but he still plays for a good Serie A side. Chiesa still flashes more potential than El Shaarawy did after his time in Milan so that one can expect him to at least play at a higher level. Accepting that his expectations need to shift is the only way for Chiesa to see the returns he expected.

To be fair to the forward, Chiesa seems willing to make this move, choosing to stay in Liverpool and fight for a spot rather than return to Italy. In Klopp’s Liverpool sides, he used Diogo Jota as a game-changer off the bench or as an occasional starter. For Chiesa, El Shaarawy, and Jota offer him the examples of how to be impactful in this new role.

Two paths exist for the Italian: return to a midtable team in Italy and be their star, or change his role and try to win at a top level. Nothing is wrong with either path, but one offers him a chance at the trophies he seemed ready to win.

The tragedy of Chiesa’s career lies in the superstar potential he showed before the injuries. While the glimpses occasionally show up, it may be time for a rethinking of his long-term role.

A world still exists where Chiesa wins some of the biggest trophies, but not as the star he promised to be.