placeholder image
AFP via Getty Images
Alexander Isak was handed a first start for Liverpool since recovering from a broken leg.
Arne Slot insisted that Alexander Isak was ‘ready to play’ after the Liverpool head coach’s gamble to start the striker against Paris Saint-Germain backfired.
The Reds were unable to pull off another comeback in the club’s rich European history as they fell to a 2-0 second-leg loss to the competition’s reigning champions at Anfield. Liverpool went into the Anfield showdown trailing 2-0 on aggregate and Slot made the decision to roll the dice by naming Isak in his team.
The striker was making his first start in four months, having recently recovered from a broken leg. However, Isak had just five touches in the first half before being substituted at the interval. The Sweden international managed just one effort on goal, with another flagged for offside.
Slot admitted he was considering leaving Isak on for longer but given that Hugo Ekitike was stretchered off in the opening 45 minutes with a suspected Achilles injury, the Liverpool head coach was wary that he would have wasted an opportunity to make another change if required.
Slot told reporters at his post-match press conference: “I said before the game that if you go to extra time and he plays the second half and plays 45 minutes, there are only two minutes in between before extra time comes up for half-an-hour. I don’t think that was realistic.
“To play him for 45 minutes and see at half-time how he feels to add 5-10 minutes to that, that was a possibility today. But because we already had to make the first substitution in the first half, I didn’t want to make the second substitution five minutes after half-time. That’s why I took him off at half-time.
“He was twice close to a goal and that’s why you play a striker of his level. There was one header from a set-piece and one great run in behind [Wilian] Pacho where he was really close to scoring which was eventually offside.
“It’s good to have him back. He was ready and if I thought he wasn’t ready then I wouldn’t have played him. If you compare us today to last week, I think it’s fair to say he was completely ready to play otherwise you can’t play a first half as we did, although the second half was even better.”
While Isak was replaced at half-time, Joe Gomez was introduced for Jeremie Frimpong. But just 22 minutes later, Gomez was replaced when the encounter was still goalless for Rio Ngumoha. Slot admitted the decision was not tactical.
Slot added: “He [Gomez] wasn't injured but I wanted to make a different substitution and then he said to me, 'I'm not convinced if I can keep sprinting. I feel a little bit. So, I think it's better to go off and not to take the risk.' So yeah, then I think that would've been my fourth substitution, so then to keep someone on that might get injured is never a smart thing. I had to change the substitution.”
Continue Reading