Arne Slot said Liverpool would need to be patient with Alexander Isak, after leaving him out of the 1-0 victory against Burnley. The striker is not ready for the demands of playing regularly after missing pre-season and Slot is looking to build up his stamina slowly.
Mohamed Salah settled the match in the 95th minute from the penalty spot after Hannibal Mejbri handballed inside the box on a day that Liverpool’s talismanic forward misfired.
“We got him from Newcastle in a state where you could say his pre-season is going to start now,” Slot said he of Isak. “He needs proper minutes of training before he has a certain base, let alone for him to play twice in three days.
“So that’s what we do, we try to prepare players for the beginning of the season once a week, and then we try to do more and more and more before we go into the rhythm of two games a week, so that they are ready for that schedule.”
The Liverpool defender Milos Kerkez was replaced before half-time after being booked for a dive inside the Burnley box. “The only way we could lose this game, if we go down to 10, because with 11 v 11, we could have drawn it, but we couldn’t have lost it because they’ve never been over the halfway line, let alone in our own 18-yard box,” Slot said.
“I didn’t want to take that risk, which was hard for Milos because normally you don’t have to take a player off if he has a yellow before.”
Burnley endured the same fate last time out when an injury-time Jaidon Anthony foul allowed Manchester United to win 3-2 at Old Trafford. The latest defeat leaves Burnley with three points from four games after throwing away two potential draws.
“It’s really heartbreaking the way the game finishes for us,” their manager, Scott Parker, said. “Two weeks in a row that it’s in the dying minutes, two penalties that decide the games. And we don’t manage to get the result.
“It’s pretty disappointing. I thought the players really produced a performance. It was everything we’ve worked on. I’m just gutted for them.”
