‘Impossible’ - Liverpool boss explains Alexander Isak decision after Newcastle United saga
.jpg?width=96&crop=1:1,smart)
Arne Slot has spoken about Alexander Isak’s fitness levels ahead of his side’s Premier League clash against Manchester United.
Arne Slot believes that Alexander Isak is ‘close’ to being back to full fitness ahead of his side’s clash with Manchester United later this afternoon. Isak has scored just once for Liverpool since his £130m British record transfer from Newcastle United, with that goal coming in the Carabao Cup against Championship opposition.
Isak played twice for Sweden during the most recent international break, but was unable to prevent them slipping to two defeats which leaves them teetering on the edge of missing out on World Cup qualification. The return of club football this weekend, though, offers Isak another chance to break his Premier League goalscoring duck.
The Reds face Manchester United at Anfield (4:30pm kick-off) aiming to end a run of three-successive defeats in all competitions. Slot’s side were beaten by Crystal Palace and Chelsea in the league before the international break, with a loss away at Galatasaray in the Champions League sandwiched in between those defeats.
Slot, though, backs his side to come through this tricky period: "What I like about top players is they don't do anything differently if they win three in a row. They don't walk into the building thinking they are better than everyone else.
“They prepare every game in the same way whether they win or lose. But the outside world is very focused on results, which we are as well.
“We don't deny that, we need to do better. We are working every single day to make the gap between us and the teams we face bigger.”
Arne Slot explains Alexander Isak decision
After signing Isak and Hugo Ekitike during a summer of lavish spending, Slot has been forced to balance the game time of both players, whilst also keeping in mind the match sharpness of the former after he missed the majority of pre-season training as he pushed for a move to Merseyside. The Dutchman, though, believes Isak is slowly returning to top condition after having his minutes carefully managed during the first chunk of the campaign: “Now he's had his five or six weeks of pre-season, fitness-wise he is close to the level he should be.
“Now we can judge him in a fair way from now on. His pre-season has finished now, he's played a few games, so we see where he is in the coming weeks.”
Slot added: “Players like Alex [Isak] and Macca [Mac Allister], those are players that we need to bring towards more playing time. You cannot go from no playing time at all to three times in a week.
The Gazette has launched a new WhatsApp NUFC channel to bring the latest news, analysis and team & injury updates directly to your phone. Simply click this link to join our NUFC WhatsApp channel.
"Everywhere round the world teams face schedules like this and they have more than 11 players to take on scheduling. The problem is if you rotate and win then you did the smart thing, if you rotate and lose you should have played the same players.
“It's impossible to play them every single game, this happened just before the international break with a few players. Alex [Isak] and Hugo [Ekitike] are not the same player, but they are both number nines and know how to play in our system.”