The same decision, a different manager

Andoni Iraola has made one of the harder calls that comes with the job, leaving Federico Chiesa out of Liverpool's Champions League squad for the league phase, and it's a decision that will feel horribly familiar to the Italian. This is the second consecutive season the 28-year-old has been omitted from the competition's squad list, following the same call Arne Slot made last campaign before circumstances, namely Giovanni Leoni's ACL injury, forced a rethink.

It's worth remembering that Chiesa hasn't featured for the Reds at all this season due to injury, and is only expected back in training later this month. So from a pure squad-management standpoint, Iraola's logic isn't hard to follow. But logic and emotion rarely keep the same hours in football, and anyone who followed last season closely will know exactly how this kind of news lands with a player of Chiesa's ambition.

What Slot revealed about that conversation

When Slot made the same decision twelve months ago, opting to include Rio Ngumoha over the former Juventus star, he was candid enough to acknowledge how difficult it had been. The Dutchman, who was sacked by Liverpool earlier this summer, didn't dress it up.

"Of course, that is one of the most difficult things you have to do as a manager," Slot said at the time. "For a player not to play, it is not always easy to tell them but not to be in the squad is always more difficult. I just explained to him why we made this choice. Of course, he wasn't happy with that. I think he understood my arguments, that is not to say he agreed with them."

Slot did add that Chiesa's response, in the end, was the right one: "He gave me the answer you want to hear from a player, that he will be there to help the team in the cups and in the league. That's one thing to say but I think he also showed this because he wasn't selected but he worked really hard these days to be ready for the upcoming days. That is even more important than what a player tells you." Whether Chiesa channels that same professionalism this time around remains to be seen.

A crowded picture and a difficult road ahead

Chiesa is not alone in his omission, Wataru Endo also finds himself outside the Champions League squad as Liverpool prepare for a league phase that includes Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Porto, Villarreal, Fenerbahce, Club Brugge, LASK and Lens. That is some fixture list, and Iraola will want every available option sharp and ready.

The broader picture for Chiesa is a complicated one. There were links to a move away from Anfield over the summer, but he'll be staying at least until January. The problem is that getting minutes is going to be a real challenge, given the arrivals of Victor Munoz and Bradley Barcola, combined with the impressive early-season form of Cody Gakpo. It is a congested wide department, and Chiesa is currently at the back of a very long queue.

The coming weeks, and how the Italian responds to yet another major setback, could well define the rest of his Liverpool story.