Fringe man Chiesa still has a chance to fight for his Anfield future

LIVERPOOL have used 24 different players in their Premier League-winning season to date.

- By THEO SQUIRES

After clinching the title by thrashing Tottenham Hotspur 5-1 on Sunday, all of them have marked their triumph on social media in one form or another.

All of them but one, that is.

Federico Chiesa might have been fully involved in the post-match celebrations at Anfield last weekend, but he is the lone Reds star yet to acknowledge becoming a Premier League champion on his public platforms.

In truth, the Italy international's silence is understandable. He has been limited to just 33 minutes of Premier League action to date across four substitute appearances.

While he was present in enjoying Sunday's celebrations, and has repeatedly been spotted as a wild cheerleader for his teammates when left unused throughout the campaign, the Euro 2020 winner could be forgiven if he felt he was suffering with imposter’s syndrome, given his limited, bit-part role since his £10million arrival from Juventus last August.

He came on for 18 minutes on his Premier League debut against Bournemouth back in September, before being struck down by injury that forced him to miss the majority of the first half of the season.

But since overcoming such issues in December, three and four-minute cameos in victories over Brentford and Ipswich Town in January were the limit of his input prior to an eight-minute outing in the 3-2 loss to Fulham at the start of April.

Sure, he had played a part in Liverpool's stoppage-time win over Brentford, involved in the build-up to both Darwin Nunez goals, and was unlucky not to score against the Cottagers, but for the majority he has been a spectator under Arne Slot.

An unused substitute on 12 occasions in the Premier League since his mid-season return, Chiesa has also failed to make the matchday squad on five occasions following his injury comeback.