Liverpool manager Arne Slot revealed that Alexander Isak will be able to play at least one half of football for his new club this week, perhaps as soon as Wednesday’s Champions League opener.

Isak was surprisingly omitted entirely from Liverpool’s squad for Sunday’s Premier League trip to Burnley. The Sweden international had been afforded a brief cameo off the bench for his country last week but remains far from full match fitness following a self-imposed exile over the summer.

The decision to remove himself from Newcastle United training ultimately forced through his Anfield arrival but has undoubtedly contributed to his delayed introduction.

Slot explained to assembled media that he didn’t bother handing Isak a cursory few minutes at Turf Moor over the weekend to ensure that he would be capable of playing a more significant role in Liverpool’s key fixtures on the horizon; namely, Wednesday’s Champions League opener against Atlético Madrid before a Merseyside derby this weekend.

“Alex is far from ready for that schedule of three games in a week, 90 minutes,” Slot outlined after watching his Isak-less outfit earn a scratchy 1–0 win over Burnley. “But then we could use him today for five minutes, and then on Wednesday again, 10 and then 15, 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, because if you play the player, you can’t give him good sessions.

“We did the same, so now he will be able, either Wednesday or Saturday, to play 45 minutes as a minimum and maybe a little bit more but if he plays 45 on Wednesday, don’t expect him to play 45 or more on Saturday because his body is not prepared for that in our opinion.”

Reports suggest that Isak spent much of the off-season firing shots into an empty goal and passing the ball off stationary walls. The 25-year-old’s workload has been increased during his first few days at Liverpool.

“He did recovery [on Sunday],” Slot revealed. “He had a hard and tough session [on Saturday]. It’s not that difficult to understand. So if you start the season when players who have been out for three to five weeks, you give them a certain base, you give them a lot of good sessions before they’re able at the end of the week to play 45 minutes.

“We got him from Newcastle in a state where you could say his pre-season is going to start now so then he needs proper minutes of training before he has a certain base, let alone for him to play twice in three days. That’s what we do, when we try to prepare players for, in the beginning of the season once a week, and then we try to do more and more before we go into the rhythm of two games a week so that they are ready for that schedule.”

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Don’t Expect’—Arne Slot Reveals Alexander Isak Debut Plan for Liverpool.

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