Arne Slot on Alexander Isak’s ‘positively surprising’ debut and late win over Atletico Madrid | OneFootball

Arne Slot says he was “positively surprised” by the fitness of Alexander Isak in his Liverpool debut as he helped his side to a 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid.

Isak started the game and played just under an hour before Virgil van Dijk headed in a late winner to get the Reds’ Champions League campaign off to a winning start.

“I was pleasantly surprised by how fit he was during that 60 minutes,” Slot said.

“But that might tell you it’s a difference to sign a 20-year-old from a different league or a 25-year-old that is used to playing in this league.

“Although he only trained for two weeks, he has so many games under his belt that he was probably more ready for 60 minutes so I was positively surprised by how fit he was.

“I wasn’t surprised by his quality because that’s what we all know. You don’t have to be a manager to recognise how much quality he has.

“It’s always nice to see a player start like the way he did, like Hugo Ekitike started the same way he did.

“Good start but only 60 minutes and now we have to build him up from here. But you can tell David (Moyes) he’s not going to play 90 minutes on Saturday.”

Liverpool were 2-0 up thanks to goals from Andy Robertson and Mo Salah before Marcos Llorente scored twice to level the score.

The Reds have left it late to win each of their first five games of the new campaign and Slot says there are both positives and negatives to that.

“You’re never 100% sure but what I do know is we are so fit that we are able to push one more time,” he said.

“I’m sure that we’re not going to need every single game, stoppage time. There will be games where we are 2-0 up after six minutes and we create so many chances afterwards that we will score the third and we don’t need stoppage time to make a late game winner.

“And there will probably also be games where we need a goal in the last minutes.

“But I can assure you even if we don’t score it, we will try to push for it. That is the mentality this team has but it is not only about mentality, it’s also how fit we are, how well prepared we are over the last few weeks that they are able to push one more time and then in the end it’s also about quality.

“There’s a lot to improve, but there’s a lot to like as well.”