Alexander Isak will not be part of the Liverpool team in their match against Burnley, this after his recent transfer from Newcastle United during the closing of the market.
Isak, who joined the Premier League champions in a British record deal of £125 million, has not played a competitive match since the last day of last season.
Despite being called up to represent Sweden in the recent international break, he was an unused substitute against Slovenia and only played 18 minutes in the 2-0 defeat to Kosovo.
Liverpool coach Arne Slot, when asked about Isak’s physical condition, commented at a press conference on Friday: “First of all, I think the Swedish coach, Jon Dahl Tomasson, deserves a big, big compliment because he gets one of the best, maybe the best striker in the world, and he needs to play two very important matches for his country, but he understands that if he were to play him twice for 90 minutes, the player would probably be injured for several weeks.”
Arne Slot
Slot added: “That’s not always easy for a coach, who cares about the player’s interest, so he deserves a big compliment for that and we will treat Alex the same way they did. So, don’t expect him to play 90 minutes in every game, it definitely won’t happen in the coming weeks.”
“If a proper pre-season was missed, I think three or four months of team sessions were missed, so now we have to build it up gradually with us playing so many games and having very little training time. So, that’s going to be a challenge, but we’ve signed him not just for the next two weeks, we’ve signed him, I think, for six years, so this is what we have to take into account and what the fans have to take into account if they see me take him off at a certain point or only bring him on for a small amount of minutes. That’s all for the player’s long-term physical condition.”
Slot has chosen to keep the same starting eleven that beat Arsenal 1-0 in the last match, with summer signing Hugo Ekitike leading the attack.
