Arne Slot has said now is the time to judge record signing Alexander Isak in a Liverpool shirt.
Isak joined Liverpool in a British record £125m deal from Newcastle United on deadline day, but has been eased into action after missing pre-season. The Swedish striker trained alone during the summer as he sought to engineer a move to Anfield.
Isak has played just 181 minutes of Premier League football for Liverpool and is yet to open his league account for the club. However, he played the full 90 minutes in both of Sweden’s games during the international break to build up his match fitness.
Slot believes Isak is now ‘close to the level he should be’ when it comes to match sharpness.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s clash with Manchester United, the Dutchman said: “Now he’s had his five or six weeks of pre-season, fitness wide he is close to the level he should be. Now we can judge him in a fair way from now on.
“His pre-season has finished now, he’s played a few games, so we see where he is in the coming weeks.
“Players like Alex [Isak] and Macca [Mac Allister], those are players that we need to bring towards more playing time. You cannot go from no playing time at all to three times in a week.
“Everywhere round the world teams face schedules like this and they have more than 11 players to take on scheduling.
“The problem is if you rotate and win then you did the smart thing, if you rotate and lose you should have played the same players.
“It’s impossible to play them every single game, this happened just before the international break with a few players.
“Alex [Isak] and Hugo [Ekitike] are not the same player, but they are both number nines and know how to play in our system.”
Read – Slot demands Liverpool reaction for ‘special’ Man United clash
See more – Slot confirms key Liverpool player to miss Man United clash
