Roy Keane’s Comment Highlights Pressure on Federico Chiesa at Liverpool
Federico Chiesa is still a Liverpool player. That, in itself, has become a talking point.
A summer of upheaval at Anfield saw some of the club’s most familiar figures walk away. Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konaté all departed on free transfers. Curtis Jones was sold to Inter Milan in a £30m deal. Names came and went, futures were decided, eras quietly closed.
Amid all that movement, Chiesa stayed put. Just about.
The Italian forward spent much of the window wrapped in speculation, his name regularly thrown into the mix whenever a possible exit was discussed, with a return to Serie A floated more than once. Yet when the dust settled, he was still on Merseyside – and that survival in the squad has brought its own scrutiny.
“Is he still there?” – Keane’s line that stung
On the Stick to Football show, Jamie Carragher ran through Liverpool’s options under Andoni Iraola and didn’t exactly paint a hopeful picture for Chiesa. He suggested that Chiesa and Wataru Endo “aren’t gonna kick a ball” for the club this season.
Roy Keane didn’t wait long to twist the knife. He cut across the discussion with a cold, dismissive question: “Is he still there?”
It was a throwaway line. It also said everything.
Keane’s remark captured how marginal Chiesa has felt since his arrival at Liverpool. The ability has never really been the issue. The impact has. He featured in 26 Premier League games last season, but only one of those came from the start – at home to Wolves in December. One start in an entire league campaign for a player of his pedigree is a brutal statistic. It tells you exactly where he sits in the pecking order.
Injury, congestion and a crowded flank
There is a reason he has not been seen in the opening weeks of this new season. Chiesa picked up a minor injury during a pre-season friendly against Como, and Iraola has already outlined the plan: the winger is expected to rejoin training during the international break in late September.
That timetable means more matches missed and another delay in any attempt to relaunch his Liverpool career. When he is finally ready, he will walk back into a dressing room that looks increasingly congested in his area of the pitch.
The signing of Bradley Barcola has only intensified the battle for minutes out wide. Iraola now has five senior wingers to juggle. For a player already clinging to relevance, the numbers are unforgiving.
Yet there is still a crack of light.
Chiesa remains the only natural right-sided forward in the senior squad. That detail matters over a long, draining season. Iraola will be forced to rotate. Games will pile up. Form will dip. If Chiesa returns sharp and focused, that specific profile on the right could hand him a route back into contention, even if it starts with cameos rather than guaranteed starts.
A career stuck on pause – and the only way out
For now, perception is the real opponent. Keane’s jibe hit home because it echoed what many have quietly thought: Chiesa’s Liverpool career has never truly started. He has been present without ever feeling central, a big name drifting on the edges of big occasions.
Changing that story cannot be done in interviews or training clips. It has to come in minutes that matter. If starts remain rare, then the burden shifts to what he does off the bench – decisive runs, key passes, goals that swing tight games. Those are the moments that shift narratives and make pundits rethink their punchlines.
Right now, Chiesa looks destined for another season on the margins, watching others define Liverpool’s new era under Iraola. But football doesn’t always stick to the script. One fit return, one chance taken, and that sneering “Is he still there?” could soon sound less like a joke and more like a warning that everyone misread his Anfield story too soon.
