Arne Slot says £125m striker “far from ready” to play at the intensity required after lack of pre-season
Liverpool’s record signing Alexander Isak was left out of the squad for the 1-0 win at Burnley on Sunday, with Arne Slot confirming the forward is still being eased into full fitness.
The £125m striker, signed from Newcastle on deadline day, has played only 20 minutes of competitive football this season – a cameo for Sweden in last week’s defeat to Kosovo – after being frozen out at St James’ Park before his move.
Slot said the 25-year-old is not yet ready for the intensity of Liverpool’s schedule but is expected to feature against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday.
“Alex is far from ready for that schedule of three games in a week,” said Slot. “We could use him today for five minutes and then Wednesday again 10, but we don’t believe that is the way to build him up.
“Sweden did the right thing of giving him good sessions without playing him a lot because if you play the player you cannot give him good sessions, and we’ve done the same.
“So now he will be able either Wednesday or Saturday to play 45 as a minimum, and maybe a little bit more. But if he plays 45 on Wednesday don’t expect him to play 45 or more on Saturday because his body is not prepared for that.”
Liverpool had to grind their way to victory at Turf Moor, where Burnley held firm but were undone by a handball by Hannibal Mejbri deep into added time, which gave Salah the chance to win it from the spot.
Slot said: “We needed a moment of luck or a moment of magic. We didn’t have the magic today, but we had the luck.”
