Arne Slot breaks silence on Federico Chiesa signing, with Liverpool fans in for a surprise

Arne Slot has spoken on the signing of Federico Chiesa from Juventus, though Liverpool fans may have to wait before seeing the Italian’s best if the manager’s comments are anything to go by.

Liverpool acted on their long-standing interest in Federico Chiesa earlier this week when completing a £12.5m move. The deal comprises an up-front fee of £10m, with the remaining £2.5m made up through add-ons.

Chiesa penned a four-year contract with the Reds and officially signed as a Liverpool player on Thursday.

Chiesa joins a stacked forward line that already contains Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez.

Liverpool have zero intention of offloading any of the established forwards at the club despite Chiesa’s arrival. As such, the battle for minutes is primed to reach new levels of ferocity.

Chiesa has been registered in time to be eligible to make his debut against Manchester United on Sunday.

However, when speaking in a press conference on Friday, Arne Slot suggested Chiesa will be eased into the action on Merseyside.

READ MORE: The key contract details of every Liverpool first-team player: Expiry dates, weekly wages, agents…

Don’t expect fast start from Chiesa

Slot was quick to point out Chiesa is lacking match fitness. The Italian was excluded from Juventus’ final three pre-season friendlies as well as their opening two matches in Serie A. Chiesa also didn’t train with Juventus during the past fortnight.

As such, Liverpool fans may well have to wait a while before seeing Chiesa feature in anything but cameo roles off the bench for the foreseeable future.

“One of the first things I noticed here is the players work really hard to achieve their goals so it’s important that the first player you bring in has the same attitude and brings the same culture,” said Slot (as quoted by Sky Sports)

“He works really hard on and off the pitch to try and get the best out of him and he combines this with scoring goals… he’s a really interesting signing.

“But we should take care of him in the beginning because he didn’t train with the team in the last two weeks, but beforehand, he did.

“He hasn’t played many game minutes yet but we have very good performance staff.

“We will build him up in the right way and hopefully see his quality in the future.”

ICYMI: Liverpool reject Nott’m Forest bid for fringe star shunted down order by new Slot signing as double exit nears

DON’T MISS: Liverpool stance clear over late move for Porto midfielder as Ornstein shares Richard Hughes masterplan