Soccer Football - World Cup - UEFA Qualifiers - Group B - Kosovo v Sweden - Fadil Vokrri Stadium, Pristina, Kosovo - September 8, 2025 Sweden's Alexander Isak reacts REUTERS/Valdrin Xhemaj
Liverpool manager Arne Slot has lifted the lid on his plan to ease new striker Alexander Isak into the fold in Merseyside. Speaking to Sky Sports in the buildup to his side’s clash away to Burnley on Sunday, Slot revealed his plan to manage Isak’s minutes given that the player has missed much of pre-season.
Isak refused to train with Newcastle in his effort to force through his exit from the club, and trained alone at the ground of his former club Real Sociedad. The Swede only played his first minutes of the campaign on Monday, when he appeared as a late substitute for his nation’s 2-0 loss to Kosovo.
Wary of thrusting the player immediately into the fold, Slot says he will be cautious with how he uses Isak and heaped praise on Sweden manager John Dahl for limiting Isak’s involvement.
“The Swedish manager Jon Dahl Tomasson deserves a big compliment because he gets maybe the best striker in the world in, needs to play two very important games, but understands if he were to play him twice 90 minutes then probably the player would have been injured for multiple weeks,” Slot said.
“We will treat Alex the same as they did. Don’t expect him to be every single game 90 minutes on the pitch. That’s definitely not going to happen in the upcoming weeks.”
“He missed a proper pre-season, he missed three or four months of team sessions. We have to build him up gradually, with us playing so many games, hardly any training time, that’s going to be a challenge.”
“But we haven’t signed him for the upcoming two weeks, we’ve signed him for six years so this is what we have to keep in mind and what the fans have to keep in mind if I take him off at a certain moment or only bring him in for a small amount of minutes, it’s all for the long-term fitness of the player.”
Isak ready for new challenge
Isak drew the ire of the Newcastle faithful this summer when he refused to return to the club following interest from Liverpool. In what quickly became the summer’s longest and most high-profile saga, the Swede eventually got his British record transfer to the Reds on deadline day.
Liverpool fans will have to wait a bit longer before their new star man is fully unleashed however, as the player slowly regains match fitness and sharpness. Fellow summer signing Hugo Ekitike has shouldered much of the workload in the No.9 position so far, scoring two goals and adding one assists in his first three matches at the club.
He’ll likely continue to the lead the line for the foreseeable future, but Slot will have unenviable task of keeping both star strikers happy once Isak is fully fit.
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