Liverpool kick off a big few days of action on Wednesday as they face Real Madrid at Anfield.
The Reds have a terrible recent record against the Spanish giants and will be desperate to put that right and make it five wins from five in this season’s Champions League.
It obviously will not be easy, but with Real Madrid missing Vinicius Junior, as well as a clutch of other players, there could be an opening for Liverpool.
In brilliant form themselves, the Reds could put one foot in the last-16 with another victory.
The Liverpool squad does have injury issues of its own, though. Arne Slot has had to navigate a rough fixture list without a handful of important players.
One of those has been Federico Chiesa, who has not played since the end of September. Having returned to training last week, however, Slot has given an update on whether Chiesa will get a run-out against Madrid.
Federico Chiesa not ready for Real Madrid
Chiesa has looked happy recently whenever seen around the Liverpool training ground.
Despite some outlandish claims that Chiesa could leave the Reds in January as a result of disillusionment at Anfield, he looks settled already.
Nevertheless, he will surely feel a whole lot better when he can finally start to put a run of games together for his new club.
Unfortunately, while speaking in his pre-Real Madrid press conference, Slot confirmed that that run would not start on Wednesday. Also revealing that Trent Alexander-Arnold would not be on the team sheet, the Liverpool head coach ruled out any involvement for Chiesa too.
READ MORE: £67m Liverpool player not involved in full training ahead of Reds clash with Real Madrid
“We also have a few injuries,” Slot explained. “Trent is in the squad but he will not be available to start. He can maybe play a few minutes, in an ideal world maybe he doesn’t, but if necessary he can.
“Federico is not in the squad yet, he’s training with us, not the whole session, but one or two parts of the session.
“Harvey Elliott is there but not ready to start, Alisson is not there yet, Diogo is not there yet. Kostas is having an injury as well, so it’s quite a list.”
Slot set to rotate forward options
While it is a shame that Chiesa will not be ready to take on the European champions, it is also not too much of a surprise.
The 27-year-old has seemingly been on a specialist plan in order to make sure he does not break down again anytime soon and Liverpool should not throw him in until he is completely ready.
In Chiesa and Jota’s absence, Slot is going to have to pick three from the same four attacking options he has had available since the middle of October.
In our opinion, after playing virtually the full game against Southampton in midweek, Slot will rest Darwin Nunez for this one and bring Luis Diaz back to play through the middle.
This is a role we may also see from Chiesa in time, but having performed it so successfully last time out against Bayer Leverkusen, Slot should have no hesitation in going with Diaz once again.
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