Liverpool have omitted Alexander Isak from the matchday squad for Sunday\u2019s Premier League fixture at Burnley as manager Arne Slot prioritised a planned week of preparation over brief cameo minutes. The decision reflects caution around Isak\u2019s readiness after the club\u2019s record signing arrived short of match minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve decided it is the best for him to have a proper week of training instead of every time going for five or 10 minutes of playing,\u201d Slot explained. \u201cI can assure the fans that he will be involved on Wednesday, but this game came a bit too early.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot framed the move as one of patient management rather than a snub, with the intention that additional training will better prepare Isak for sustained involvement.<\/p>\n
Jamie Carragher offered an assessment of the situation on Sky Sports, noting the player\u2019s lack of match fitness and suggesting a possible role on the bench in midweek. \u201cIsak is obviously short match fitness-wise and training-wise as well,\u201d Jamie Carragher reacted on Sky Sports. \u201cThe manager and staff feel a few extra days training would be good for him and he maybe he goes on the bench for the Champions League game against Atl\u00e9tico Madrid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsak fits in at centre forward. When you pay that much for somebody, he is that quality. He will be like Mohamed Salah. When you see Liverpool play, you expect to see Salah and you will expect to see Isak as a centre forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat may mean [Hugo] Ekitik\u00e9 plays left but remember you have Cody Gakpo, he\u2019s good as well. You have Florian Wirtz as well. That may be Liverpool\u2019s first-choice front four and Ekitik\u00e9 may have to fit in around that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot\u2019s selection for the Burnley game includes a front three of Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and Hugo Ekitik\u00e9. Liverpool Starting XI: Alisson; Szoboszlai, Van Dijk, Konat\u00e9, Kerkez; Wirtz, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Gakpo, Ekitik\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Subs: Mamardashvili, Gomez, Endo, Bradley, Chiesa, Robertson, Frimpong, Nyoni, Ngumoha.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Isak omitted for Burnley as Slot prioritises a full week of training; midweek involvement expected. Wed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,969],"tags":[195,299,872],"class_list":["post-2788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","tag-alexander-isak","tag-arne-slot","tag-cody-gakpo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788","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=2788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}