Will Federico Chiesa change Liverpool's plans for Mohamed Salah?

After the official announcement that Liverpool have signed Federico Chiesa from Juventus, how will it affect Mohamed Salah and will it impact on any decisions the club make on the Egyptian’s future?

We all know that Salah is now into the last 12 months of his contract, and with radio silence over any contract extensions for Liverpool stars, it could be that Chiesa’s signing will give Liverpool and Arne Slot nice problems to have both in the short-term and perhaps longer-term too.

Could Chiesa be a Salah replacement?

Chiesa’s signing is obviously something of a coup when the comparative price and quality of someone who was bought for a combined €60m was in fact available for close to a fifth of that, but it could spell even greater financial help when you consider that he could even replace Salah if he has an unbelievable first season. Given that Salah’s yearly salary is more than double Chiesa’s transfer fee, could that free up funds to address other areas of the pitch that might require spending larger sums for top talents?

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Of course, no matter how well Chiesa does it’ll be unlikely he could replicate Salah’s incredible output, but when you consider that the Italian is a full five years younger than Salah there is a good chance Chiesa will be at Anfield for longer than the Egyptian, especially when you factor in the four-year deal Chiesa has signed which will keep him at Anfield during what should be his prime years.

Chiesa can help keep Salah fresh

If we look short term, it’s clear to see after the end of last season why quality back-up for Salah is something that was high up on the list of things that Richard Hughes needed to address this summer. Perhaps not as pressing as a holding midfielder or another centre-back, but it was something that Hughes needed to consider and this definitely smacks of the opportunism that the new sporting director spoke about in his first press conference. 

Sadly as we have surely now come to expect during an ultimately unsuccessful title run-in, the Africa Cup of Nations disrupted Salah’s rhythm and left him with one of the only injuries he’s ever suffered during his seven years with the Reds. When he came back he may well have been fit but he did not look up to scratch and for all his good choices with personnel last season, Jürgen Klopp’s over-reliance on Salah when he wasn’t firing on all cylinders was hard to watch, culminating in a very public spat at the London Stadium.

With Chiesa firmly viewed as back-up to Salah, he’ll play a really important role in keeping one of Liverpool’s star players fresh, and depending on when it’s appropriate Chiesa can come in and give Salah a break both in games or from the start. So far we’ve seen Salah taken off to keep his minutes down in the Brentford game, and it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see more of that now Chiesa is a part of the squad.

Could Chiesa push Salah to IMPROVE?

It’s also entirely possible that Chiesa’s arrival will push Salah to improve, not that you would suggest overly that he needs to given the numbers and the performances Salah has been putting in to start the season. If you think however about how motivated Salah clearly is to still perform at this level, and he will rightly view Chiesa as competition for his position, there is an argument to be made that the Italian will put pressure on Salah to be even better, especially if Chiesa has ideas about becoming part of the starting line-up in the not too distant future. 

Furthermore, it’s notable that Slot mentioned Chiesa’s potential to get even better than he undoubtedly already is, which certainly bodes well for the argument that he can indeed light something of a fire under Salah and that he’ll get the chance to do so.

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Bear in mind too that with some of the other forwards in the squad, most notably Diogo Jota, we have been used to seeing periods of time where thanks to injury the strength in depth in attacking positions has been rather thin, leading to players playing out of position.

With Chiesa’s versatility and the fact he is another experienced forward, this shouldn’t be an issue. Neither should his fitness either, despite plenty of concern about Chiesa’s injury record. It should be noted that he remained pretty consistently fit last season and realistically a lot of his absences were due to one very serious ACL injury and then being rushed back into a Juventus side in disarray that was in dire need of his quality. 

All in all, if Chiesa can even replicate half of what Salah has provided Liverpool he will be a great back-up, and if he can perform even better than that there is perhaps a difficult decision to be made about what terms Salah could be offered in a new contract.