When Arne Slot met with the press on Friday, he talked at length about Alexander Isak, Liverpool’s new No. 9.
The head coach talked about the Reds’ trip to Burnley with the media at the AXA Training Centre. It was his first public appearance since Isak joined the Premier League winners on transfer deadline day.
On the last day to move…
A lot of things happened on the last day, which doesn’t always happen. For example, we didn’t do much during the whole window last season. But getting Alex’s deal done is still the thing that makes me the happiest. To get that deal done, Richard Hughes, the owners, and everyone else involved worked very hard. It’s great for the club, our fans, the players, and me that all of their hard work paid off and led to Alex signing with us.
About Isak’s readiness to play and whether he will make his Liverpool start at Turf Moor…
The Swedish manager, Jon Dahl Tomasson, should be praised for getting one of the best, if not the best, strikers in the world to play in two very important games for his country. He knows that if he played the player for 90 minutes each time, the player would have been hurt for weeks. It’s not always easy for a boss to look out for the best interests of their players, so they should be praised for that. We will treat Alex the same way they did.
Don’t expect him to play 90 minutes in every game in the next few weeks. He missed a good preseason and I think three or four months of team sessions. Because we play so many games and don’t have much time for training, we need to slowly build him up. That will be hard, but we signed him for more than just the next two weeks. I think it’s for six years, so that’s what we need to remember and what the fans need to remember if they see me take him off at a certain time or only bring him in for a few minutes. That’s all there is to making the player fit for the long run.
About how he first thought Isak was as a guy…
People might not believe me if I say this, but I haven’t talked to him that much. Therefore, I only talked to him on the phone after he signed because he had to go work with the national team. During international breaks, I usually leave my players with the boss they work with there. Since he’s new to us, I texted him maybe once or twice to see how he did. But I need to spend the next few days and weeks getting to know him better as a person. But even though how someone is important to us because our club has such a great culture, we mostly sign a player for his skills, so I don’t need to call them. I played against him a few times and we played against him a few times. I know what a good player he is.
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