‘Perfect game’ – Paul Merson urges Slot to hand one Liverpool player first PL start of the season today | OneFootball

Paul Merson believes that Liverpool’s match this afternoon provides the ‘perfect’ opportunity for Arne Slot to hand one player his first Premier League start of the season.

Although his substitute appearances have been more frequent this term compared to last, it’s been another campaign in which starts have been few and far between for Federico Chiesa, whose only involvement from the first whistle has come in much-changed line-ups in the Carabao Cup.

All 12 of his top-flight outings have been off the bench, with a mere 12 minutes played across the Reds’ last five league matches (Transfermarkt), although he made a goalscoring impact against Bournemouth and Crystal Palace in the opening weeks of the season.

Liverpool take on Wolves this afternoon without several attacking options – Alexander Isak is injured, Mo Salah is away at the Africa Cup of Nations and Dominik Szoboszlai is suspended, while it remains to be seen whether Cody Gakpo will be fit in time to feature today.

Merson urges Slot to start Chiesa against Wolves

Taking all that into consideration, Merson believes there’s no excuse for Slot not starting Chiesa at home to the team marooned to the botom of the Premier League table on a meagre tally of two points.

In his weekly Premier League predictions column for Sportskeeda, the Sky Sports pundit wrote: ‘With Dominik Szoboszlai [suspended] and Mohamed Salah away on AFCON duty, Federico Chiesa must get a start in this game. I think he deserves a run out in this game.

‘Chiesa will never let you down as a manager. He has got that energy Liverpool need and this is the perfect game to use him as well.’

(Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

If Chiesa doesn’t start today, when will he?

Slot’s reluctance to start the Italian – who saved a point for the Reds with his heroic stoppage-time interception against Sunderland earlier this month – is one of the biggest curiosities of his reign, with the 28-year-old winning the hearts of Kopites with his attitude on the pitch.

Lewis Steele recently claimed that the ex-Juventus man has found it hard to regain the head coach’s trust since an ineffective display in the shock FA Cup exit to Plymouth Argyle last season, but he was just one of numerous players who badly underperformed that day.

Some supporters may also argue that there have been certain teammates who’ve let the Dutchman down far more often than Chiesa, yet they rarely get dropped while our number 14 seems to be continually overlooked.

As Merson rightly points out, though, it’s hard to make a case for the Italy international not to start today, with so many attackers ruled out and with Liverpool coming up against a Wolves side who’ve endured a dismal season of potentially record-breaking proportions.

When the team news is announced 75 minutes before kick-off, it’ll be compelling to see if the Reds’ starting line-up includes number 14. If not today, then when in the Premier League?