Alexander Isak of Liverpool during a training session at AXA Training Centre on September 12, 2025 in Kirkby, England. (Photo by Nikki Dyer - LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)placeholder image
Alexander Isak of Liverpool during a training session at AXA Training Centre on September 12, 2025 in Kirkby, England. (Photo by Nikki Dyer - LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images) | Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Alexander Isak was omitted from Liverpool’s squad for the 1-0 victory over Burnley in the Premier League.
The striker was purchased for a British record fee of £125 million from Newcastle United on summer transfer deadline day. It brought an end to a protracted saga, with Isak not training with the Magpies for much of pre-season and missing their opening three games of the campaign as he pursued a move to Anfield.
Head coach Slot said on Isak: “He did recovery. He had a hard and tough session yesterday. It’s not that difficult to understand. If you start the season when the players have been off for three, four, five weeks, you give them a certain base and a lot of good sessions before they are able to play 45 minutes at the end of the week. We got him from Newcastle in a state where his pre-season is going to start now. He needs proper minutes of training before he has a certain base let alone for him to play twice in three days.
“We try to prepare players at the beginning of the season to play once a week and then we try to do more and more before we go into the rhythm of two games a week so they are ready from that schedule.
“Now, Alex is far from ready for that schedule of three games a week, 90 minutes. Today, we could have used him for five minutes and 10 on Wednesday but we don’t believe that is the way to build him up. In Sweden, they did the right thing of giving him good sessions without playing him a lot.
“But if you play the player, you cannot give him good sessions. They did the right thing, we did the same and now he will be able - either Wednesday or Saturday - to play 45 as a minimum, maybe a bit more. But if he plays 45 of Wednesday, don’t expect to play 45 or more on Saturday because his body is not prepared for that, in our opinion.”
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