Arne Slot stands over Alexander Isak decision as Liverpool striker branded ‘nonexistent’ v PSG | OneFootball

Arne Slot has defended his decision to start Alexander Isak in Liverpool’s 2-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield on Tuesday night, amid external criticism of the striker’s performance.

It was only last week that the 26-year-old made his return off the bench from a four-month injury layoff, but despite the head coach’s pre-game warning that the Swede would only be able to play for 45 minutes, he was included in the Reds’ starting XI against the European champions last night.

DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL EMPIRE OF THE KOP APP FOR ALL THE LATEST & BREAKING UPDATES – STRAIGHT TO YOUR PHONE! ON APPLE & GOOGLE PLAY

Indeed, despite Hugo Ekitike going off with what appears to be a serious injury after half an hour, his fellow centre-forward was substituted at the interval as planned, and he looked understandably rusty in the time that he was on the pitch, as evidenced by his performance figures from Sofascore.

Slot has no regrets over starting Isak

Slot stood over his decision to play Isak from the start despite him only lasting 45 minutes, believing that Liverpool’s record signing was ‘ready’ to participate from the first whistle on Tuesday.

The Reds boss explained (via liverpoolfc.com): “I said before the game, if you go to extra time and he plays in the second half and plays 45 minutes, there is only two minutes in between before extra time comes up for half an hour and I don’t think that was realistic.

“To play him 45 and let’s see at half-time how he feels to add five to 10 minutes to that, that was a possibility for today, but because we already had to make the first substitution in the first half, I didn’t want to make the second substitution five or 10 minutes after half-time. That’s why I took him off at half-time.

“I think he was ready and if I thought he wasn’t ready, then I wouldn’t have played him. I think if you compare us today to last week, I think it is fair to say he was completely ready to play. Otherwise you can’t play the first half as we did, although the second half was even better.”

However, Stephen Warnock was highly critical of Isak’s performance against PSG as he raged on BBC Radio 5 Live (via Liverpool.com): “He was non-existent here tonight. He didn’t want to get any physical contact alongside Marquinhos. He was sort of wanting to bump into him. There was no wanting to build a platform for his team to get onto the ball.”

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Want more Empire of the Kop coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust

Isak now needs to step up after Ekitike injury blow

With Liverpool needing to overturn a two-goal deficit from the first leg and Slot believing that Isak was ready to start, we can understand why he felt the gamble of playing him and Ekitike together was worth taking.

However, some fans may question why the Swede started when his head coach knew before kick-off that he’d only last for 45 minutes, which’d suggest that his half-time withdrawal was premeditated even without the sickening injury to his French teammate.

Now that the latter is set to miss the rest of the season, the ex-Newcastle man will have a significant burden to carry at centre-forward, and this is the time when he needs to show why LFC made him their club-record signing at £125m last year.

We could forgive him some rustiness against PSG as he’s still feeling his way back from his leg break in December, but Isak will need to start delivering soon for Liverpool as the fate of their season rests on a six-game sprint to the finish line in the hunt for Champions League qualification.

A decisive contribution in the Merseyside derby on Sunday would be most welcome from our number 9.