Arne Slot will need to utilise his excellent man-management skills to nip Federico Chiesa’s frustrations in the bud after snubbing the Italian when naming Liverpool’s upcoming Champions League squad
Arne Slot has already shown he can handle disgruntled players by using a technique that’s “worth its weight in gold”. The Liverpool manager last week admitted Federico Chiesa was unhappy after he left the Italian out of his Champions League team.
Chiesa, 27, will not represent the English champions in the competition’s league phase, with the manager picking 17-year-old sensation Rio Ngumoha ahead of the Euro 2020 winner.
Chiesa made a crucial contribution in August by scoring the Reds’ opening day winner against Bournemouth. But despite appearing in each of Liverpool’s first four Premier League fixtures, he has played less than 50 minutes of football in total.
He likely would have been included in the squad if the club had managed to pull off the deadline day acquisition of Marc Guehi. That’s because new signing Giovanni Leoni, who is not eligible to be registered on Liverpool’s homegrown place, might have been left out instead, as Slot would not have needed an extra body in defence.
Chiesa ultimately fell victim to Slot’s verdict and the Dutch manager admitted ahead of the trip to Burnley on Sunday that he was left frustrated. “Of course, that is one of the most difficult things you have to do as a manager,” Slot said.
“For a player not to play, it is not always easy to tell them but not to be in the squad is always more difficult. I just explained to him why we made this choice. Of course, he wasn’t happy with that.
“I think he understood my arguments – that is not to say he agreed with them. He didn’t tell me, by the way, that he didn’t agree with them! But he gave me the answer you want to hear from a player, that he will be there to help the team in the cups and in the league.
“That’s one thing to say but I think he also showed this because he wasn’t selected but he worked really hard these days to be ready for the upcoming days. That is even more important than what a player tells you.”
According to Panathinaikos striker Cyriel Dessers, Slot is well-versed in such situations and his man-management skills will undoubtedly prevent tensions from escalating further. The Nigeria international was once left similarly frustrated by Slot’s decision to drop his then-star striker at Feyenoord.
But the head coach managed to alter Dessers’ perception with a heart-to-heart conversation on the team bus, which ultimately changed the course of the player’s career.
Dessers recalled: “When I was at Feyenoord, there was a match Arne Slot started with Bryan Linssen instead of me against Heerenveen. I was so disappointed.
“I came on ten minutes before the end. It was freezing cold, the match was already over, nobody really wanted to go forward. I came on with a really poor attitude because I was so disappointed that I wasn’t allowed to start.
“After the match, Slot sat next to me on the bus. I’ve had managers who got angry in such a situation. But he actually said in a very normal and calm way that he understood how I felt.
“He also explained why he had made his choice. I apologised, he said again that he could imagine my emotions. I walked back to the back of that bus and felt like it was out of my system. I still think back to that one conversation sometimes. There, Arne proved to me that he is not only a good manager, but also a good person.
“I sometimes miss that empathy in football with the media, with the fans too, who sometimes forget that a player is only human. The world of football is hard, sometimes unreasonable. So it’s worth its weight in gold if you have a manager who treats you normally, honestly and with understanding.”
The Reds’ Champions League campaign gets underway on Wednesday, when they host Spanish giants Atletico Madrid at Anfield.
