Alexander Isak ‘far from ready for three games in a week’, says Arne Slot

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot admits British record signing Alexander Isak is in no state to feature significantly as their schedule ramps up with the start of the Champions League.

The £125million striker was left out of the squad for Sunday’s last-gasp 1-0 victory at Burnley, having played only 18 minutes of football for Sweden and having missed pre-season and game time due to his dispute with Newcastle.

Isak spent Saturday having a hard training session and was involved in recovery while his new team-mates were at Turf Moor labouring to a fourth successive win, Mohamed Salah’s penalty in the fifth minute of added time extending the Reds’ 100 per cent record and restoring their three-point lead at the Premier League summit.

“If you start a season when the players have been off for five weeks, you give them a certain base before they are able to play 45 minutes,” said Slot, whose side face Atletico Madrid at Anfield on Wednesday evening.

“We got him from Newcastle in a state where you could see his pre-season was going to start now, then he needs proper minutes of training before he has a certain base, let alone for him to play twice in three days.

“We try to prepare players at the beginning of the season to play once a week and then we try to do more before the rhythm of three games a week.

“Alex is far from ready for that schedule of three games in a week but we could use him today for five minutes and Wednesday 10 and then 15, but we don’t believe that is the way to build him up.

“In Sweden they did the right thing by giving him good sessions without playing him a lot and we did the same so now he will be able to play 45 on Wednesday as a minimum or a little bit more.

“But if he plays 45 on Wednesday, don’t expect him to play 45 or more on Saturday (against Everton) as his body is not prepared for that.”

Slot admits his side got lucky after being frustrated by the Clarets’ organised defence and it was a relief to snatch three points after being rewarded for throwing on more attackers to chase victory after the late sending-off of Burnley’s Lesley Ugochukwu.

“They almost got a point so I’m not saying anything negative about it but it is difficult to outplay 11 players in their own 18-yard box and a draw was probably expected throughout the game,” Slot said.

“But we tried with the substitutions we made to bring all the players we have who can attack on the pitch.

“I think we were six or seven in the end and I don’t know if that has anything to do with us scoring but we created the penalty and had a big chance with Jeremie (Frimpong) before that.”

Despite the defeat Burnley boss Scott Parker was proud of his players.

“It’s really tough and I’m gutted for the players. We took the game to the 95th minute today and a penalty has decided it,” he said.

“We had to survive at times and had to dig and go to places not many human beings sometimes go to.

“They survived their moments, they worked tirelessly for the cause and resorted back to a default position which was ‘Let’s do what we can’ and I’m very proud of them.”