Liverpool boss Arne Slot has insisted that Alexander Isak will be eased into the side and the Reds do not expect him to play 90 minutes every week.
The Reds finally completed the signing of the Sweden international from Newcastle United on deadline day for an initial £125m with the fee potentially reaching £130m.
His move from the Magpies turned into the transfer saga of the summer with Isak going on strike in order to force a move and releasing a statement criticising Newcastle.
Isak did not take part in pre-season at St James’ Park after picking up a thigh injury, which means that it will take a while for the new Liverpool signing to get up to speed.
Former Liverpool midfielder Joe Cole said this week that he doesn’t think Isak will go straight into the Reds starting XI, especially with Hugo Ekitike’s early-season form.
Cole told Paddy Power: “I don’t expect him to go into the team straight away. I think they’ve got to be smart with him. And you’ve got to expect Liverpool to do that with all of their players – they’ve been blooded in. They are playing well. Ekitike’s scoring goals, there’s no need to rush him.
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“I think it’s a smart thing to do, is just to feed him in, let him come off the bench, let all the hoo-ha die down, and just let him figure out how to become a Liverpool player. There’s no rush. It’s not like they’ve lost two of the first three and they need him right at it. You know, come on with 20 minutes, half an hour to go, and see how he goes.”
Cole added: “You have to remember, this lad’s had a horrendous summer. To push his move, what expense is him pushing his move at Newcastle to get there? All the bad energy coming from the Newcastle fans. It didn’t sit right with a lot of football fans.
“He’s been inactive in playing and training with top-level players for so long. So is that going to dull his ability straight away? … All of that emotional baggage he’s going to have to deal with now. Put that to bed and restart becoming a footballer.”
Isak played just 18 minutes in a 2-0 defeat to Kosovo over the international break as Sweden manager Jon Dahl Tomasson was careful to ease him back into action.
And Slot praised Tomasson and revealed that Liverpool will “build him up gradually”, which is likely to mean a place on the bench against Burnley on Sunday.
Liverpool boss Slot told a pre-match press conference: “The Swedish manager (Jon Dahl Tomasson) deserves a big, big compliment because he gets maybe the best striker in the world and he needs to play two very important games for his country but understands that if he would play him twice for 90 minutes then the player would be injured for multiple weeks and that is not always easy for a manager that he takes care of the interest of a player.
“We will treat Alex (Isak) the same as they did so don’t expect him to be (playing) every single game 90 minutes on the pitch as that is definitely not going to happen in the upcoming weeks.
“He missed a proper pre-season and I think he missed three to four months of team sessions so now we have to build him up gradually with us playing so many games. That is going to be a challenge but we have not signed him for the next two weeks we have signed him for six years and the fans have to keep this in mind.”
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Isak was heavily criticised for the way he forced a move away from Newcastle, responding to that, Slot added: “In football there is always criticism. Sometimes people cheer for you and after he won the League Cup people were really happy with him and in other moments you get criticised and this is part of his life, my life and our jobs.
“Now he is a player for us and I am really happy with that.”
On deadline day, the Liverpool head coach continued: “A lot of things happened on the last day which is not always the situation as last season we hardly did anything in the whole window.
“The thing that pleases me most is us getting the deal for Alex (Isak) over the line, everyone involved worked so hard to get the deal done. It’s good for the club, for the fans, for the players and for me that all the work they have put in resulted in Alex signing for us.”
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