Arne Slot must turn to Liverpool option he's been avoiding as Mohamed Salah plan ruined

Liverpool's list of absentees is growing, and with one area of the side looking especially sparse for the next game against Wolves, it's about time Arne Slot stopped avoiding an obvious solution

Arne Slot reacts during Liverpool's game against Tottenham(Image: Getty Images)

It rare that the mood around a club can be made worse by a win. Yet, Liverpool’s victory at Tottenham over the weekend seems to have managed just that.

Considering how the Reds have been performing over the last couple of months, any sort of win feels like it should be greeted with open arms at this stage. The way in which Arne Slot’s team seemed determined to throw away a 2-0 lead against a nine-man Tottenham side didn’t exactly instil confidence that a corner has been turned.

Watching Liverpool almost self-destruct again, after the Leeds debacle earlier this month, hasn’t settled any of the lingering doubts about this side this season, and the growing list of absentees isn’t helping.

We can almost certainly rule Alexander Isak out for at least the next few games, and we can only keep our fingers crossed that it won’t be a long-term injury. Nothing sums up Liverpool’s luck at the moment quite like its record signing picking up a potentially season-ending issue at the very moment it looks like he might have finally found his feet.

Conor Bradley’s withdrawal is a worry as well, given his injury record, and the suspension of Dominik Szoboszlai - probably the Reds’ best player this season - leaves a rather large crater on the right-hand side for the next game against Wolves on December 27.

Surely then, now has to be the time for Federico Chiesa.

Liverpool winger Federico Chiesa(Image: Getty Images)

For one reason or another, Slot has seemed intent on not giving the Italian the opportunity to start. It’s been said previously, only for the Liverpool boss to go down a different path, but he can’t keep ignoring him now.

It does seem as though Jeremie Frimpong had been earmarked as the solution on the right wing while Mohamed Salah is away at the Africa Cup of Nations, and we saw evidence of that against Tottenham when he replaced Isak.

The Dutchman is surely going to have move to right-back now though. Joe Gomez is out, Bradley is likely out, Szoboszlai is suspended, and even Wataru Endo, who could have been a wildcard option, is in the treatment room.

Now, given what we’ve seen from Slot previously, it’s not out of the question that someone like Curtis Jones could be asked to fill in, or perhaps Calvin Ramsay could earn himself the unlikeliest of recalls to the side.

That all feels like it would be overcomplicating what should be a more simple decision, and one that would finally reward Chiesa for the work he’s put in when he’s been called upon this season.

Frimpong at right-back, Chiesa on the right wing feels like the obvious solution against Wolves. If anything, Isak’s injury only makes that more viable, with the all-star option of a Wirtz-Isak-Ekitike triumvirate out of the window for now.

Whether we’ll finally see Chiesa get his chance remains to be seen, but if not now, you’d have to seriously question when he is going to get the opportunity he deserves.