Arne Slot Calls Alexander Isak ‘Maybe the Best Striker in the World’ as He Reflects on Failed Marc Guehi Deal

Arne Slot has said Alexander Isak is likely to be used sparingly in the early weeks of his Liverpool career after the striker’s pre-season preparations were disrupted by his attempts to force through a move from Newcastle United.

The 25-year-old Sweden international, who completed a British record £125m transfer to Anfield at the start of the month, made his first appearance of the season on Monday as a late substitute in his country’s surprise World Cup qualifying defeat to Kosovo.

Isak was also an unused substitute in Sweden’s draw with Slovenia last week, and Slot praised Jon Dahl Tomasson, the Sweden manager, for limiting the forward’s playing time rather than risking his fitness.

Slot confirmed that Liverpool would adopt a similar approach, effectively ruling out the possibility of Isak starting on Sunday at Burnley, where the champions will seek to maintain their current place at the top of the Premier League table. 

‘Maybe the best striker in the world’

“The Swedish manager deserves a big, big compliment, 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 probably the player would have been injured for multiple weeks,” said Slot. “That’s not always easy for a manager, that he takes care of the interest of a player, so he deserves a big compliment. 

“We will treat Alex the same as they did, so don’t expect him to be [playing] every single game, 90 minutes on the pitch, that’s definitely not going to happen in the upcoming weeks. 

“He missed a proper pre-season and I think 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 Isak having had] hardly any training. 

“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, 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.”

‘We were close to signing Marc Guéhi’

The need for Isak to get up to speed means Slot can defer the selection dilemma posed by his arrival, which is likely to necessitate dropping one of Mohamed Salah, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike or Cody Gakpo from Liverpool’s starting lineup. 

The Dutchman refused to be drawn on whether the club might make another attempt to sign Marc Guéhi in January after a £35m deal for the Crystal Palace defender collapsed on deadline day. Terms had been agreed and the England player had completed a medical, but Palace reneged on the deal in the face of opposition from their manager Oliver Glasner and failure to sign a suitable replacement.   

“It would be a bit ridiculous if I denied that we were close to signing him, that is so out in the open,” said Slot. “These things happen in football, it’s happened to our players maybe in the past as well, that they thought they were so close to signing somewhere else and then in the last moment things changed. This can happen.

“For me, We would have liked to sign him, and we were in for him of course. Like I’ve said many times, if we feel we can strengthen the team with a move in the market, we never hesitate to do so and that’s what we tried to do. 

“It’s a pity, not only for us but also for the player I think. But he’s in a good place playing at Palace, where he won the Community Shield and the FA Cup with a very good manager. Let’s see what the future brings for him and for us.”