Arne Slot makes Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz prediction ahead of Man United vs Liverpool

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Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz are both set t start at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoonArne Slot is convinced Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak are now in a position to take the next step in their Liverpool careers and justify their big-money signings.Wirtz became the Reds' most expensive player when he arrived from Bayer Leverkusen in a £116million deal last summer before being surpassed by Isak's British record £125m switch from Newcastle United.While Wirtz had initial struggles adapting to English football, he has managed seven goals and 10 assists this season although none have come against teams in a current European qualification berth.However, the Reds have still to play Chelsea and Aston Villa after Sunday's visit to bitter North West rivals Manchester United.And asked if he hopes Wirtz can improve on his record against the leading teams, Slot said: “I don’t only hope that, I am 100% sure he will.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE! All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook page"For me it is a coincidence, we have to play three more who are in those positions so that gives him three more chances to do this."The development Florian has made throughout his Liverpool career, which has only been 10 months, is so clear and obvious: 93rd minute against Crystal Palace making a duel on the sideline, winning a throw-in and then making a sprint from 40 yards and hitting the ball in the top corner, that is something I am not completely convinced he could do the same eight months ago."Slot added: "His improvement - and he was already an elite player – has been, for me, clear and obvious and that improvement will only continue as he is only 22 so that makes complete sense."Almost every player in the world is at his best when he is 25, 26 but he is already an elite player now and he can only become better and that is the beauty of the signings he did last summer, that all of them are of a certain age where we can only expect them to get better – as long as they don’t get injured."Liverpool have had the most shots in the Premier League this season but have scored 23 goals fewer than at this stage last campaign having claimed the title.Isak has started the last three games and could play four in a row alongside Wirtz for the first time.

And Slot believes the Swede's improvised opener at home to Crystal Palace last weekend demonstrated what his team have missed for large parts of the campaign.“Having Alex more and more available, having him available at his top level, would increase that even more," said the Reds boss when asked on improving efficiency in front of goal. "In general having players available would help becoming consistent; at the moment not playing three times in seven days helps in our consistency."But chance creation, converting into goals that is something we haven’t done very well throughout this whole season but one of the players we always thought could score goals for us was hardly available."Last week you could see it was a chance but it wasn’t the biggest chance we’ve had this season and he finished that one off really well by scoring the 1-0 and scoring a goal which is vital in football as it sets you in the right direction or if you don’t score it and concede a set-piece at the other end – which happened so many times in the first half of the season – that brings the game in a different direction."Slot added: "Happy to have Alex back, unfortunately Mo was of course another great goalscorer for so many years and is not available on Sunday but Alex is."I think some other players that haven’t scored the amount of goals that I think they are able to or they have shown in the past they are able to and that will go back to normal in a certain moment and the sooner the better."