Liverpool set to give Alexander Isak the nod over fitter team-mates as part of Arne Slot plan - The Mirror

Liverpool are determined to get Alexander Isak firing with form and fitness both issues and Arne Slot is ready to pick him over fitter team-mates to get him up to speed

Arne Slot admits he's ready to play Alexander Isak ahead of players who are fitter and have more sharpness in an effort to get Liverpool's British-record signing up to speed after a disrupted summer.

The Reds spent £125million to land the Swede following a lengthy transfer saga with Newcastle, that saw Isak told to train away from the first-team. He eventually got his way on deadline day but has looked miles off the level he showed last season.

Isak has already spent time on the sidelines with injury, perhaps owing to a disrupted pre-season, which has seen him play just 429 minutes since becoming a Red. A groin injury has also kept him absent for the last five matches.

He's been used sporadically by Sweden, which has again kept him from the pitch, and Slot knows that Isak needs minutes if he is to get back to his former level. And as a result Slot is ready to play his summer signing ahead of players who "you could argue" deserve to play instead of Isak.

The Dutchman said: “I do know that 100 per cent fit ­Alexander Isak is a big, big, big plus for this team. But for him to get there, he might need to have minutes where you could argue that another player might be further ahead of him in terms of match fitness.

“He did one time a sprint above 30km/h in four months. He didn’t do a lot of high-intensity runs. So we had to build him up, which is normal, if you have been training on your own.

“I can see in training sessions, if he is fully rested, then you can see his ­quality. We play in short spaces, so the ball comes a lot to him. But 11 v 11 on a big pitch, there is a lot of running and not much touching the ball. It will still take a bit of time but he will end up being the player he was at Newcastle if we get him fit.”

Last term Isak scored 27 times for Newcastle, one of which was a stunning strike during a 3-3 draw with the Reds at St James' Park. In his eight outings for Liverpool it has been a different story. He's found the net just once - and that was against Southampton in the Carabao Cup.

Isak's struggles mimic the difficulties experienced by a number of the summer signings made by Slot. Florian Wirtz was the British-record signing before Isak's move but the German has found it difficult to replicate the form he showed at Bayer Leverkusen.

Milos Kerkez was bought in from Bournemouth but he's yet to establish himself as a regular following his £40m move. Jeremie Frimpong has been plagued by injury problems.

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