Liverpool are not playing to Alexander Isak’s strengths, Arne Slot admits

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Slot has repeatedly defended Isak’s slow start as an inevitable consequence of missing pre-season with Newcastle, when he effectively downed tools to force his exit, but Liverpool’s head coach admits his team are also culpable for the player’s problems.“He is not the only No 9 who suffers in some games from not getting many chances,” said Slot, who has Conor Bradley back from injury for Saturday’s trip to Leeds. But it is obvious and clear that we want to bring him into more threatening situations.“Before we went to only one goal conceded in two games [West Ham and Sunderland] we had a lot of chances.

It is definitely one of the things on my list of things to improve to get our No 9 more involved in the game and more involved in the final third.”Isak has averaged only 14 touches per game in his last three starts for Liverpool but Slot insists it is where he touches the ball, not how often, that counts. “Do you know how many times he touched the ball at Newcastle on average?

“In this league strikers don’t touch the ball that much but a few times they do touch it, it’s quite nice if they finish it off. It is more important that they touch the ball in the right times than to touch it so many times.