Arne Slot explains Alexander Isak absence from Liverpool squad

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·14. September 2025

Arne Slot explains Alexander Isak absence from Liverpool squad

New £125m signing not named in Liverpool squad at Burnley

Arne Slot has explained his decision to leave Alexander Isak out of the Liverpool squad against Burnley.

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The £125million summer signing was expected to make his Liverpool debut at Turf Moor but he was not included in the squad.

Slot said: “As everybody knew, he did not have any team training at Newcastle, then went to the national team and only played there for 15-20 minutes.

“We think, with a week when we played three games in seven days, this is the best lead-up for him to be available against Atletico Madrid.”

Isak trained with his new team-mates for the first time this week but he did not have a proper pre-season and missed the first three games of the season for Newcastle as he tried to force his move to Anfield.

Isak joined Liverpool from Newcastle on deadline day

Liverpool FC via Getty Images

After his transfer was completed on deadline day, he joined up with the Sweden squad for their latest pair of 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

He was an unused substitute in the 2-2 draw with Slovenia and only played 18 minutes off the bench in a 2-0 loss to Kosovo.

Isak remains short of full match fitness and Slot has moved to temper expectations with regards to his involvement in his early weeks at Liverpool.

Asked how long it will be before Isak is up to full speed, Slot said: “That is always difficult to say.

“What I can say is, in a pre-season after one or two weeks you play your first 45-60 minutes and you build that up gradually. But you do that with proper training sessions during the week. Now we hardly have any proper training sessions with the team because we play three games in seven days.

“Where would he be? Second or third week of pre-season I would say. So able to hopefully able to play during the week 45 minutes or more. But then two days later we play Everton. So it is going to be interesting for the performance staff, for us to get the best out of him from the start but also keep him available until the end.

“Another player that was not available for team training for a long time was [Yoane] Wissa, he got two 90-minute games and he is out for with an injury now for four weeks. That tells you how difficult the balance is with a player who has missed team sessions for such a long time.”