Arne Slot explains why he left Alexander Isak out of Liverpool squad vs Burnley

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Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has explained Alexander Isak's lack of fitness was the reason he was omitted from Sunday's matchday squad for the trip to Burnley.

Excitement is understandably high among Liverpool supporters following the record-breaking £125million ($169M) signing of Isak from Newcastle United on transfer deadline day, but Slot had warned on Friday there would be need to be patience given the striker's disrupted summer.

That was underlined on Sunday when Isak was left out of the squad altogether to face the Clarets, along with fellow summer signing Giovanni Leoni, while Curtis Jones' omission was anticipated after Slot confirmed in his pre-match press conference that the midfielder had suffered a knock.



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As everybody knew, he didn't have any team training at Newcastle," the Liverpool head coach told Sky Sports ahead of the game?

Slot added it will be "difficult" to say when Isak will be fully up to speed following his fitness issues.

"What I can say is that in pre-season after one or two weeks you play your first 45 to 60 minutes and you build that up gradually. 

"But that you do with proper training sessions during the week.

Now we hardly have any proper training sessions with the team because we play three games in seven days. 

"So where would he be.

So, hopefully able to play during the week [for] 45 minutes or more but then two days later we play Everton again, so it’s going to be interesting for performance staff, us to get the best out of him from the star but also keep him available until the end."

Isak's fitness has been a major talking point since his record-breaking arrival from Newcastle.

Sweden head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson selected the Liverpool star for just 18 minutes across two vital World Cup qualifiers during the international break.

Those are the only on-field minutes the ex-Real Sociedad man has played in nearly four months due to his decision to essentially go on strike at Newcastle, which resulted in him being forced to train away from the team.



Isak trained this week but is not ready to make his Liverpool debut