Arne Slot has publicly defended Alexander Isak after the striker\u2019s decision to withdraw from Newcastle United duties drew criticism. Speaking ahead of Isak\u2019s potential debut for Liverpool against Burnley on Sunday, Slot argued the Swede\u2019s actions should not be read as a mark on his character and stressed Liverpool would handle the situation differently.<\/p>\n
Isak has said Newcastle had \u201cbroken\u201d a number of promises made to him, leaving him \u201cno alternative but to try and force a way out of St James\u2019 Park.\u201d The striker\u2019s goal that beat Liverpool and secured Newcastle the Carabao Cup last season also ended a 70-year wait for a major domestic trophy.<\/p>\n
Some have accused Isak of breaching the spirit of his contract; others have suggested clubs can exercise too much control over a player\u2019s career and exile those they deem surplus, citing Manchester United\u2019s and Chelsea\u2019s \u201cbomb squad\u201d of unwanted players as examples.<\/p>\n
Slot pushed back on judgments of the player\u2019s character. \u201cNo [it doesn\u2019t reflect badly], I just look at the club. It\u2019s not necessary at our club, because we also trade players,\u201d Slot said. \u201cIf a player wants to leave and we get the right money for him, this club has shown so many years now that we then sell.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can just keep on training here \u2013 Lucho [Luis D\u00edaz] and Harvey [Elliott] get their transfers , Tyler Morton gets his transfer, all these players, I can come up with eight, nine, 10 I think in the last window, that just conduct themselves in the best possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot confirmed Liverpool will manage Isak\u2019s introduction carefully because the striker lacked training and first-team minutes over the summer, which may prevent him from playing immediately. Still, Slot expressed clear confidence in Isak\u2019s quality. \u201cHe is one of the best in the world,\u201d Slot beamed. \u201cBut for him to become the best, I think the best players in the world win trophies.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt [the fee] might put pressure on him and me but nothing extra \u2013 if you have this [Liverpool badge] on your shirt there is always pressure,\u201d Slot added. \u201cWe target a player and we want to have him. We decide what his value is, if that matches with what the club wants then we are not afraid to act. We get that money from trading players and winning the league after we didn\u2019t spend anything at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arne Slot defends Alexander Isak’s character and outlines Liverpool’s transfer approach vs Burnley..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,194,172],"tags":[195,299,986],"class_list":["post-2733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-newcastle-united","category-epl","tag-alexander-isak","tag-arne-slot","tag-contract-standoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}