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.
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 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.”
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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.
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A big mistake starting a player who has been at the club 6 months and out for 5 months or more injured he was not match fit should not have started he was not up to it. All we can do now is qualify for champs league next season are season is over, we need players next year and not one out one in we have no depth in the squad and most important we need and out and out striker who can score and knows were the net is.
Slot got the team selection wrong again, he changed the system again to a 4-3-1-2 with szoboszlai playing very deep, and two strikers who were totally anonymous, so was wirtz. Should have got after them from the kick off, poor conditions give us a chance, no Salah and no Rio after they both scored against Fulham was typical clueless slot.
On a different note I would be very concerned over the news that the Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola is leaving at the end of the season. Why? And where’s his next job. Everyone thinks that FSG are going to get Alonso to replace slot is wishful thinking. Look back through the history of FSG and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bournemouth manager has been lined up by FSG to the next Liverpool manager.
One he’s out of contract, two, he won’t demand big wages or a big transfer budget for players, he’s in the same mould as Brendan Rodgers, and Iraola has made Bournemouth 250 million on player sales in three years. He also likes develop young players and FSG are listening and are being sold on the idea by Richard Hughes and his Bournemouth links.
The Bournemouth manager has done a decent job but he’s not good enough for Liverpool, what’s he done at the highest level, just like Rodgers.
FSG have had their big spend last summer, it won’t happen again for years, now they can maximise profit with increased ticket prices they will look long term with little spending with a manager who is a yes man to develop young talent on a shoestring budget.
Don’t be surprised if FSG have chosen their new manager from Bournemouth. He ticks all the boxes to maximise profit for charlatan owners FSG.
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