Pep Guardiola applauds during a Man City matchplaceholder image
Pep Guardiola applauds during a Man City match | Getty Images
Pep Guardiola has praised this new Liverpool signing ahead of this weekend’s Premier League fixtures.
Liverpool fans are eager to see record signing Alexander Isak make his debut in red after his highly speculated move to Merseyside finally came to fruition.
The Premier League champions set out to oversee significant changes during the summer transfer window, which is exactly what happened. The Reds broke their personal transfer record twice with Florian Wirtz and Isak, and set a new British benchmark after the Swede finally put pen to paper.
Pep Guardiola praises Alexander Isak
Newcastle stood firm on not selling Isak for the majority of the transfer window but they agreed a Deadline Day deal worth £125 million, becoming part of history as they set a new British transfer record.
The Sweden international is highly regarded as one of the best strikers in the world right now and Pep Guardiola is also an admirer of his.
Speaking during his press conference ahead of the Manchester derby on Sunday, the Manchester City boss was asked where he feels his own Erling Haaland ranks as a centre-forward compared to Isak.
“A little bit above. Isak is an exceptional player. You asked me about Erling and he is top,” Guardiola said. “Isak must be a top player because of what they [Liverpool] paid.”
The City manager went on to say he wouldn’t change Haaland for anyone else.
When will Alexander Isak make his Liverpool debut?
Hugo Ekitike has hit the ground running with Liverpool, providing three goalscoring contributions in as many games so far, and opening up his portfolio with the first goal of the Premier League season.
However, fans are still eager to see Isak in action for the Reds for the first time. Supporters have been wondering if the 25-year-old will make his debut against Burnley on Sunday but Arne Slot has stressed he cannot be rushed into a fixed role right away, due to how much team training he missed at Newcastle.
“Don’t expect him every single game 90 minutes on the pitch – that’s definitely not going to happen in the upcoming weeks,” the boss confirmed in his press conference.
“He missed a proper pre-season, I think he missed three or four months of team sessions, so now we have to build him 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 only for the upcoming two weeks, we’ve signed him, I think, for six years so this is what we have to keep in mind and what the fans have to keep in mind if they see that I take him off at a certain moment or I only bring him in for a small amount of minutes. That’s all for the long-term fitness of the player.”
Slot also revealed he hasn’t spoken to Isak much since his arrival from Newcastle due to the international break but he plans to ‘get to know him as a person much better in the upcoming days and weeks’.
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