Arne Slot casts ominous Alexander Isak team news message ahead of Burnley game following his deadline day arrival - as Reds boss breaks his silence following rollercoaster £125m transfer pursuit

Arne Slot has urged patience over the fitness of British record signing Alexander Isak given the £125million man has played just 18 minutes of competitive football in four months.

Isak completed his move from Newcastle on Transfer Deadline Day after months of speculation, strikes and a will-he-won’t-he saga.

But the Swedish striker had not kicked a ball in a match since mid-May until his cameo appearance off the bench for his national team against Kosovo on Monday – and Liverpool are set to ease him into action slowly.

‘Don’t expect him to be playing every single game for 90 minutes on the pitch,’ said new boss Slot ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Burnley on Sunday. ‘That’s definitely not going to happen for the next few weeks. He missed a proper pre-season.

‘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 hardly any training time.

‘That is going to be a challenge, but we have not just signed him for the upcoming two weeks, we have signed him for six years.

‘This is what we have to keep in mind, and what the fans have to keep in mind if I take him off at a certain moment or I only bring him in for a few moments. That is all for the fitness of the player.

‘Sweden manager Jon Dahl Tomasson deserves a big compliment because he gets one of the best strikers in the world, maybe the best striker in the world, and needs to play two very important games.

‘But he understands that if he plays him twice for 90 minutes then probably the player would have been injured for multiple weeks. That is not always easy for a manager but he took care of the interest of a player. He deserves a big compliment for that. We will treat Alex the same.’

Slot complimented the Liverpool transfer team for completing the record coup of Isak and also discussed a failed Deadline Day move that saw the champions narrowly miss out on signing Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi.

The Eagles pulled the plug on that deal at the 11th hour and Slot said: ‘It would be ridiculous if I denied we were close to signing him. That is so out in the open that it would be ridiculous. These things happen in football.

‘For me, we would like to sign him of course, because we were in for him. Like I have said many times, if we feel we can strengthen the team with a chance in the market, we never hesitated to do so and that’s what we tried to do.

‘It’s a pity but not only for us, but also for the player I think. But he’s in a good place, playing at Palace where he won the Community Shield and the FA Cup with a very good manager as well. Let’s see what the future brings for him and for us.’

Liverpool go to Turf Moor with their 100 per cent record intact and will be boosted by the return of right back Jeremie Frimpong, who has resumed training this week. Midfielder Curtis Jones is the only definite absentee at this stage.

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