Liverpool extended their lead at the top of the Premier League table at the weekend as they thrashed West Ham United 5-0 at the London Stadium. Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota were on the scoresheet in the emphatic win, which was their 14th in 18 games this season. Speaking after the game, Slot expressed his delight at there being five different goalscorers on the day.
“I like to see this because if you only rely on one player when it comes to goals that is mostly not really helpful, although it’s also nice to have one that scores a lot,” he explained. “But then to see that others score goals and threatening the other goal as well is pleasing to see. It’s not only the one that scores the goal, I think the lead-up towards the goal is also very positive from our point of view.”
Slot also spoke on the absence of Federico Chiesa, who was left out of the matchday squad entirely: “Federico I’ve said many times already, we are working on two things, we are working on his match fitness and whenever we can we tried to bring him with the team. We thought it was better for him to have some extra training sessions instead of joining us.”
Slot ready to let Chiesa leave
Slot’s recent comments on Chiesa suggest that he envisages the Italian winger, who joined from Juventus in a £12.5 million move in the summer, having a future at Anfield. According to a new report from TBR Football, however, Slot is instead open to letting him leave Liverpool this month.
The publication claims to have been told by sources that Chiesa’s entourage have approached Liverpool about letting him return to Italy, and that Slot is ready to let him do so.
TBR Football claim that Chiesa is “hugely frustrated” at his lack of game time this season, and that a number of clubs from his home country, including Napoli, Roma, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Atalanta and Fiorentina, are all ready to take him if Liverpool agree to a loan move.
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Chiesa, who has previously been hailed as “world class” by former Italy international Alessandro Pierini, made his first appearance since September for Liverpoool last month when he came off the bench in a 2-1 win against Southampton in the Carabao Cup.
After the match, Slot was full of praise for the 27-year-old: “I saw some really good moments and I saw some moments where I felt like, ‘OK, you can do better than this. For me, that’s completely normal if a player has been out for so long and plays his first game in five or six months. It’s good to see that he’s back and that he had a few good moments in the game.
