Now or never: Arne Slot to decide Liverpool star's future TODAY

It's now or never at Anfield as Arne Slot gets ready to decide on one Liverpool player in particular. The Reds take on Southampton in the Premier League.

Liverpool take on Southampton at Anfield later today in what Arne Slot has described as a 'cup final'. The Reds are the league leaders, of course, hoping to continue down the champions' path.

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Arsenal are waiting for them to slip up but this won't be one they've circled on the calendar. Southampton, after all, have been the worst team in the Premier League this season.

The Saints have just nine points from 27 matches. They've only scored 19 goals in that time, too - six fewer than Mo Salah. In fact, as a team, Southampton would be behind Erling Haaland in the scoring charts, too, and level with Alexander Isak.

In other words, Liverpool are expected to win this one quite comfortably. Anything else would be a shock and a massive boost for the Gunners as they attempt a late title charge.

Making things a little more difficult for Slot, though, is European competition. Liverpool played Paris Saint-Germain this week and somehow came away from France with a 1-0.

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They'll now host PSG at Anfield on Tuesday for the second leg. It's a quick turnaround and one that means Slot must manage his squad correctly.

Which brings us to Federico Chiesa.

Federico Chiesa's place at Liverpool

Chiesa was literally the only player added to Slot's squad this season. The one star Liverpool signed for their new head coach.

Other than the Italian, this is actually just a slightly weaker version of Jurgen Klopp's squad, given Joel Matip and Thiago both retired.

But Slot has barely used him. Chiesa has only played 28 minutes in the Premier League, spread across three fixtures.

While there have been plenty of suggestions that Chiesa wasn't fit when arriving at Liverpool (he didn't get a pre-season at Juventus), this is supposed to be the period where we finally saw him. Only, we haven't.

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But Southampton at Anfield today is the best possible time to give him a start. It's against the weakest team in the league, at home, and it comes sandwiched between two massive, high-intensity UEFA Champions League fixtures.

Cody Gakpo is working his way back from injury, too, while Diogo Jota can't possibly play three games in a row like this with his injury record (surely). It makes complete sense to give Chiesa a go.

If Slot doesn't pick him, then we've got to question whether he has a future at Liverpool. It would be impossible to see one from our position, certainly - what use would he be?

Is Chiesa exclusively at the club to play cup games against lower-league opposition? That's not really worth his wages.

Today we get a real message from Slot on whether he trusts Chiesa at all. If he doesn't, that's surely it for him.

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