2 months ago
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Photo by Nikki Dyer - LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
The Italian national team manager was involved in the decision to leave Federico Chiesa on Merseyside this month.
Having been frozen out at Juventus before joining Liverpool in the final week of the summer transfer window, Italian international forward Federico Chiesa is short of match fitness and so will spend the next two weeks getting up to speed at his new club.
That was the decision made with the input of national team manager Luciano Spalletti, who talked this week about the decision to leave Chiesa on Merseyside as he met reporters ahead of their upcoming Nations League matches against France and Israel.
“Chiesa and I spoke and made a fair assessment,” Spalletti noted. “I would have brought him as an extra player, not participating in the games. He told me that he had spoken to his new club and that he needs to do specific preparation work with them.”
Despite having it made clear he didn’t have a future at Juventus, Chiesa was a key player for Italy at this summer’s Euros and remains key to Spalletti’s plans moving forward. If his role would only have been to train, though, staying at his new club makes sense.
An intensive two-week pre-season with his new club to get up to speed and start to drill Liverpool manager Arne Slot’s tactics while getting settled at his new home should benefit not just Chiesa and the Reds but also in the longer term his national team.
It’s an approach that stands in contrast Netherlands and national team manager Ronald Koeman’s approach to Ryan Gravenberch last year, where the player’s decision to remain on Mersyeside after a late move saw him briefly frozen out internationally.
