Liverpool avoid £55m mistake with Dr. Ian Graham favourite

Liverpool have got a squad capable of achieving extraordinary things this season, but managing the players is essential getting the best out of them. It's a fine balance for Arne Slot to oversee.

Most of the transfers made in the summer were agreed relatively early on, which has allowed for the wholesale changes to not have a negative impact on the Reds' start to the season, getting three wins.

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This is primarily because of the successful pre-season campaign to build fitness and the veteran players making the difference in tight contests when the team hasn't fully gelled with each other yet.

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With new recruit Alexander Isak, however, the Reds are having to ease him into things gently, since he went on striker at Newcastle over the summer in order to force his £125m move to Merseyside.

Slot unveils short-term Isak plan

Ahead of the Reds' game against Burnley on Sunday, the Dutch head coach spoke to the media in his first press conference after the international break, and gave his thoughts on the Swedish striker.

He said: "... Don't expect him [to play] every single game 90 minutes on the pitch - that's definitely not going to happen in the upcoming weeks. He missed a proper pre-season, I think he missed three or four months of team sessions, so now we have to build him up gradually with us playing so many games and [having] very little training time."

As such, expectations have been tempered and while a lot of fans might have hoped that he could get a mini cameo in Sunday's match against Burnley, he was understandably omitted from the squad.

Before the contest at Turf Moor, Slot gave a little bit more context behind his short-term plan.

He said: "We think, with a week where we play three games in seven days, this [to spend this weekend training] is the best lead up for him to be available against Atletico Madrid. That's always difficult to say [how quickly he will be] up to full speed. What I can say is that normally in a pre-season, after one or two weeks you play your first 45 to 60 minutes, you build that up gradually."

Isak was initially hailed as a favourite of Dr Ian Graham's in 2022, prior to the club taking Jurgen Klopp's advice to sign Darwin Nunez, and how that the Swede is a Red, he has to be managed well.

In a pitch-side conversation with Sky Sports, the injury of Newcastle's Yohan Wissa was also brought up by Slot as an example of how not to manage a player lacking match fitness, causing an injury.

The Congo international is set to be out for around six weeks with a knee injury sustained while out playing for his country, something Jon Dahl Tomasson managed a lot better with Isak at Sweden.

As such, it's clear we can't rush the player, even though we all want to see him play for us ASAP.

If minutes against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League this week are on the cards, then fans will get a glimpse of Isak sooner rather than later, but since Slot considers him to be in the third week of his pre-season fitness program, we might not see him at full match fitness until after the October international break - the Reds play six matches after the Burnley encounter before the break arrives.

The player's talent and desire to play is undoubtable, but for now, we'll have to play the waiting game.

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