Liverpool is riding high on confidence after winning their first three games of the Premier League season. They will be trying to make it four in four when they take on Burnley at the Turf Moor Stadium on Sunday.
Arne Slot addressed the media ahead of the match and the focus remained on Liverpool's deadline day signing of Alexander Isak. The Swedish international plied his trade for Newcastle United last season where he scored 23 goals from 34 matches. However, he refused to train in the pre-season, forcing the club to look for options to offload him. Liverpool signed him on the deadline day but Arne Slot confirmed that due to lack of playing time, he won't feature much in the first two weeks.
"I think the Swedish manager Jon Dahl Tomasson deserves a big compliment because he gets one of the best strikers in the world and needs to play two very important games for his country, but understands that if he would play him twice 90 minutes, then probably the player would have been injured for multiple weeks. And it's not always easy for a manager to take care of the interest of a player and so he deserves a big compliment for that," Slot started, referring to Isak's appearance off the bench in 2-0 loss to Kosovo.
"And we will treat Alex the same as they did. So, don't expect him to play every single 90 minutes on the pitch. That's definitely not going to happen in the upcoming weeks. He missed a proper preseason. 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 hardly any training time, that's going to be a challenge but we've signed him not only 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 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 further added
Alexander Isak received a lot of criticism from the Newcastle United fans and various pundits for his decision to refuse training with the club despite being contracted to the club. When asked of the same, Arne Slot replied that praise and criticism are a part of football.
"In football there's always criticism and sometimes people cheer for you. So, I think after he won the the League Cup, everyone was really happy with him and in other moments he gets criticized. That is part of his life, my life, our jobs and now he's a player for us and I'm really happy with that," Slot concluded.
While Liverpool gained Alexander Isak on the deadline day, it also loaned Harvey Elliott to Aston Villa, with an obligation to buy him permanently. When asked about Elliott's departure, Slot heaped praise on him and wished him luck for his next stint.
"Harvey is going to a very nice club in Aston Villa. It is in the best interest of everyone. He didn’t get the playing time he deserved for the quality of player he is. He conducted himself always very well. It wasn’t that when he said this was his club, he wanted to say this to the fans. He acted inside although he did not play so much. He was always doing what was in the best interests of the club. He deserves a big compliment for that," Slot added.
Liverpool had to omit Federico Chiesa from their Champions League squad. This is because all the teams have to include eight homegrown players in a squad of 25 and the Italian didn't make the cut due to quality present in the other players. Slot explained that informing a player that he would not be a part of the squad is one of the hardest things a manager has to do.
"I explained to him why we made this choice. Of course, he wasn’t happy with that but he understood my arguments. That is not to say he agreed with them. He didn’t tell me he didn't agree with them either. He gave the answer you want to hear from a player; that he will be there to help the team in the cups and the league," Slot revealed.
Burnley enter this fixture on the back of a 2-3 loss to Manchester United in their last Premier League campaign. They sit fourteenth on the points table, with one win and two losses to show for their efforts. It remains to be seen how they fare against a star-studded Liverpool side.
