Sloter says Chiesa ready for more Premier League minutes

The "Red Army" Liverpool will travel to challenge the "Cherries" Bournemouth in the 24th round of the 2024/25 Premier League. Coach Slot said that Chiesa is ready to play more time in the Premier League, and said that the striker's current good form is good news for the team.

Liverpool beat Ipswich 4-1 in the last round of the Premier League after goals from Soboslai, Salah and Gakpo. After 3 wins and 2 draws in the last 5 rounds, Liverpool currently ranks first in the standings with 53 points, 6 points ahead of second-placed Arsenal.

In terms of the record of confrontation, Liverpool has achieved 4 wins and 1 loss in the last 5 games against Bournemouth, including a 3-0 home win over Andoni Iraola's team in the first round of this season.

Liverpool manager Slot said at a press conference, "This will be a big challenge. Maybe it sounds strange, but I realized it in the second half of our home game against them. At that time, we led 3-0 in the first half. I thought we could still control the game in the second half and even score another goal, but they maintained a strong attack throughout the second half, which made me see their fighting spirit."

"They've been playing really well since then and of course they were in great form before that game. We were 3-0 up at half-time but the way the game played I thought maybe we should have been ahead but not by three goals."

I hope the players' rest can achieve good results.

In addition, Liverpool rested some players in the earlier Champions League match against PSV Eindhoven, and the "Red Army" lost to their opponents in this game and missed the chance to achieve eight consecutive wins.

Slote said, “You can say that I rested many players in the midweek game, or you can say that I sent those players who needed game time. I am very satisfied with their performance against PSV. Except for three or four main players who rested, the opponent basically sent out a very strong lineup, and we also showed strong competitiveness in the game. Even in the second half, we sent out many young players, but the performance was still very good.”

“As for the players who stayed at Liverpool, they didn’t really have three or four days off, they were still training, just not playing. I’ve said before that this doesn’t give us any guarantees for this game, but hopefully it will help us stay in good shape for the next three or four months. The Premier League and Champions League seasons are long, the players are playing almost 10 months straight without a break, and hopefully this rotation will help them keep their energy up.”

It is worth mentioning that Italian striker Chiesa played the full 90 minutes for Liverpool in the match against PSV Eindhoven. Sloter said, "He is certainly ready to play more minutes in the Premier League. If he can play 90 minutes in the Champions League, it means that he can play a certain amount of time in the Premier League. If there is a problem, it is that he is competing for the position of Diaz, Nunez, Gakpo, Salah and Jota."

"I think everyone will agree that they all played very well. But for us it is very good news to get Chiesa back to this level. He last played the full 90 minutes in the Euros against Switzerland six or seven months ago. That was the last time he played the full game.

Sloter also said, "He gradually recovered in training and was able to play a full game, thanks to his hard work and thanks to our fitness and medical teams, who helped him reach this level without playing a lot of friendly games. This is a big achievement for him and a great team work."