Thomas Frank publicly rejected Arne Slot\u2019s characterisation of Micky van de Ven\u2019s challenge that left Alexander Isak with a fractured fibula.<\/p>\n
The fracture required surgery and will keep the \u00a3125 million ($169 million) British transfer record signing out for at least the next couple of months. Slot, speaking ahead of Liverpool\u2019s clash with Wolves, said: \u201cif you make a tackle like that 10 times, 10 times there is a serious chance the player gets a serious injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frank was clear in his response. \u201cI am obviously disagreeing in many ways,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are talking about a defender that will do everything he can to avoid the goal. It is a transition. There is a ball down the side and he is doing everything he can to block the shot, so he is sliding.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately Isak plants his foot,\u201d Frank added. \u201cIt makes it look worse than it is, but that is a natural action for a defender. Put it this way, if my defender does not do that, they are not true defenders. Reckless challenge? I don\u2019t think you see anything like that from Micky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frank also said the two players had been in contact and that they \u201chave sorted it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isak\u2019s absence is set to affect Liverpool across competitions. The striker will miss Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup fixtures while he recovers.<\/p>\n
Slot struck a cautiously positive note about the longer-term outlook. \u201cI am confident [Isak] can play a part in the season,\u201d he said, reflecting on the forward\u2019s difficult start at his new club. Slot emphasised the impact of a limited preseason and a prolonged period without group training, saying it had been \u201ca really challenging and difficult period for him. He joined a new club, he was very excited and you want to show immediately all the qualities that you have. But that was simply impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot noted the improvement Isak had shown before the injury, pointing to his recent goals as evidence he was approaching the form he displayed at Newcastle. The debate over the tackle\u2019s intent, however, is likely to continue among managers and supporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Frank defends Van de Ven after Slot called the tackle reckless; Isak faces months out after surgery. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[728,175,172],"tags":[195,299,1215],"class_list":["post-5334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brentford","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-alexander-isak","tag-arne-slot","tag-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5334","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=5334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}