Arne Slot has insisted that Liverpool will take a patient approach with new signing Alexander Isak.
Isak joined Liverpool from Newcastle United on deadline day for a British record £125m fee.
The transfer was completed after a long saga, that saw Isak refuse to join up with Newcastle for their pre-season tour as he pushed for an exit. The Swedish striker had been training alone prior to his move to Liverpool and Slot has said the striker is not ready to play regular 90 minutes for the Reds.
He praised Sweden manager Jon Dahl Tomasson for his use of Isak during the international break, with the 25-year-old limited to two substitute appearances.
“The Swedish manager [Jon Dahl Tomasson] deserves a big, big compliment,” Slot said at his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Burnley this weekend.
“Because he gets maybe the best striker in the world and he needs to play two very important games for his country but understands that if he would play him twice for 90 minutes then the player would be injured for multiple weeks and that is not always easy for a manager that he takes care of the interest of a player.
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“We will treat Alex [Isak] the same as they did so don’t expect him to be [playing] every single game 90 minutes on the pitch as that is definitely not going to happen in the upcoming weeks.
“He missed a proper pre-season and I think he missed three to four months of team sessions so now we have to build him up gradually with us playing so many games. That is going to be a challenge but we have not signed him for the next two weeks we have signed him for six years and the fans have to keep this in mind.”
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