Roy Keane’s Remark Highlights Federico Chiesa's Liverpool Struggles
Federico Chiesa has become a convenient punchline in the Liverpool debate. Once a marquee name, now a talking point about what happens when a big talent never quite finds his place.
He is still at Anfield. That in itself feels like a twist.
Across a summer of upheaval, Liverpool watched Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konaté walk away on free transfers. Curtis Jones headed to Inter Milan in a £30 million move. With that level of turnover, Chiesa’s name kept surfacing in the exit chatter, often tied to a possible return to Serie A.
The move never came. The Italian stayed on Merseyside. And that was all Roy Keane needed.
“Is he still there?”
On the Stick to Football show, Jamie Carragher ran through Liverpool’s options and didn’t exactly talk up Chiesa’s role. He suggested Chiesa and Wataru Endo “aren’t gonna kick a ball” for the club this season.
Keane cut across him with one, icy line: “Is he still there?”
It was a joke, but it landed because it felt close to the truth. Chiesa has drifted towards the edge of Liverpool’s story since he arrived. The ability is obvious; the impact, far less so.
Last season he appeared in 26 Premier League games. On paper, that sounds involved. Then comes the detail that matters: he started just once, at home to Wolves in December. One league start across an entire campaign for a player of his pedigree underlines exactly where he sits in the pecking order.
Injury, timing and a crowded flank
There is a reason he has not featured in the opening two league fixtures of this season. Chiesa picked up a minor injury in pre-season against Como, a setback Andoni Iraola has already acknowledged. The Liverpool manager expects him back in full training during the international break in late September.
That delay hurts. Every week out hands someone else minutes, rhythm and trust.
By the time Chiesa returns, the competition out wide could be even more entrenched. The arrival of Bradley Barcola has already raised the bar and swollen the numbers. Liverpool now have five senior wingers fighting for time in the wide roles.
For a player already battling to be seen, it is a brutal landscape.
Yet there is still a wrinkle in his favour. Chiesa remains the only natural right-sided forward in the senior group. That specific profile can matter over a long, heavy season. Iraola will be forced to rotate. Fixtures will pile up. If Chiesa is sharp and locked in when his moment comes, he can still offer something Liverpool do not otherwise have.
A career stuck in perception
For now, though, the bigger fight is against reputation. Keane’s line cut through because it echoed a wider feeling: that Chiesa’s Liverpool career has never truly started.
To change that, he cannot talk his way out of trouble. The answer has to come in the only language that counts at this level – decisive contributions. Even if starts remain rare, cameos can still be powerful. A goal that rescues a point. An assist that swings a tight game. A burst of energy that reminds people why Liverpool signed him in the first place.
At this point, Chiesa looks set for another year on the margins, a high-profile name lurking on the team sheet’s underside. But football turns quickly. One opening, one run of form, and the narrative flips.
If he returns fit, finds rhythm and forces Iraola’s hand, that mocking question – “Is he still there?” – might soon sound less like a punchline and more like the start of a very different story.
