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liverpool head coach Arne Slott British record signing Alexander Isaac’s season starts now as he believes the striker has finally reached the level where he will be fully effective.
The £125million transfer has played just 313 minutes in six matches, scoring only once in a Carabao Cup win over Southampton, since his transfer. newcastle On deadline day the club tried to ease him into life at Anfield after missing the entire pre-season.
Isak has played a further 198 minutes for Sweden, although he failed to find the net against Kosovo or Switzerland in two full World Cup qualifiers during the international break.
However, ahead of the trip to arch-rivals Manchester United, Slott said the 26-year-old is now ready to go.
“I think now he’s had five, six weeks of pre-season which is normal for every player, especially if you’ve been out for three or four months,” the Dutchman said.
“Fitness-wise he is close to the level he should be at and we can evaluate him objectively from now on.
“I know how this industry works, if he plays there (Sweden) twice and doesn’t score, obviously you’re not expecting that.
“You’re hoping that if they go to the national team they’ll score goals like Cody (Gakpo), like Virgil (van Dijk), like Dominic (Szoboszlai), like (Alexis) McAllister, but they didn’t.
“His pre-season is probably over now, he’s played some games for 70, 80, 90 minutes so we’ll see where he is in the coming weeks.”
Isaac isn’t the only player who has struggled early in the season.
Even before losing three games in a week, many of the slot team were performing poorly, including the midfielders. alexis mac allister And Mohammed Salah.
The former is another who has been affected by his lack of full fitness, but after scoring twice in Argentina’s friendly win over Venezuela, Slote is hopeful he will be back to his best.
The head coach said, “One thing is clear he unfortunately missed a lot. He went out (injured) soon after winning the league and we were expecting him to be back for the start of pre-season, which he wasn’t.”
“That led to the fact that he wasn’t able to play three times in a row, so he went in-and-out, in-and-out for 60 minutes, 45 minutes, and that’s never an ideal scenario for a player.
“But like everyone else he is a player who has experienced so much already in his career that he will get back to the level he wants to be at and the level I want from him.”
Salah, whose return of four goals in 10 games is below his expected high, also scored twice as Egypt secured World Cup qualification against Djibouti, but he has come under scrutiny for his all-round contribution, particularly defensively against Chelsea, which targeted Liverpool’s right flank.
Slot said, “I heard Mark Cucurella’s comments and saw how he made it 2-1, but I can also show you five or six moments where Mo could have made the difference for us.”
“If that had happened, we would have had the same conversation as we had last season where he made the difference for us at times. If it had not happened there would probably have been comments like this.”