Liverpool manager Arne Slot has confirmed that new signing Federico Chiesa will not be in the starting lineup for the Champions League opener against AC Milan at the San Siro.
Chiesa, who joined the Reds from Juventus on the penultimate day of the summer transfer window, has yet to feature for Liverpool.
He was absent from the squad for the 3-0 victory over Manchester United and last weekend’s 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.
Despite using the international break to work on his fitness, Chiesa is still building sharpness after being frozen out at Juventus.
As a result, the Italy international is expected to start on the bench for Tuesday night’s clash in Milan, with Arne Slot confirming that the winger will not be included in the starting XI.
The Dutchman said: “I always like to bring in quality players and I think he’s a quality player with an enormous work-rate.
“The culture of this club is working really hard when we don’t have the ball.
“He brings this to his game in combination with scoring goals and can play in several positions.
“He is, for the first time, in our team selection and it would be a big surprise if he would start tomorrow.
“You shouldn’t expect him to start but he will get a few minutes if we need him.
“That is something we will see. For the first time with us but don’t expect him to be there from the starting line-up as he was training at Juve alone for a long time and with us for a few weeks.
“It’s too early for him to play 90 but hopefully can play his first minutes in the upcoming fixtures.”
On the criticism for not rotating his starting line-up against Forest after the international break, Slot added: “For me, and everyone can have an opinion, it’s too simple to put the loss on rotations.
“Too many people didn’t reach their normal level – not just the players who started but the ones who came in.
“For me, it had a lot to do with the playing style of the opponent but in the end, if you don’t win you try to look at as many arguments as you can find.
“I ask myself the question does it have the things to do what you said, but I think we could have done a lot of things much better that were not to do with rotation.
“You never know if you’d have rotated three or four players if we’d have won that.”
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