Slot: Isak has returned from long lay-off stronger and fitter

Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final at Manchester City will come too soon for Liverpool striker Alexander Isak, but head coach Arne Slot says the Swede now looks in a much better physical place than before he broke his leg.

Contents

‘Having Mo in the form he’s had for so many years will be a big help’Mixed news on Alisson and Frimpong Liverpool’s remaining fixtures:

Isak – who joined the champions from Newcastle for a British-record fee of £125m on September 1 – suffered the injury at Tottenham Hotspur on December 20 and only returned to first-team training on Thursday after 101 days on the sidelines.

The timing is good for Slot as the Reds prepare to face a crucial end-of-season run across three competitions that could decide the Dutchman’s future at Anfield, beginning at the Etihad on Saturday lunchtime.

Isak will not be fit enough to start that FA Cup last-eight tie, although the striker could be on the bench.

“No, it will definitely be too fast to expect him in the starting line-up,” Slot confirmed in his pre-match press conference. “He’s trained with us yesterday [Thursday] for the first time and today [Friday] for the second time after exactly 101 days.

“It will take a bit of time to give him a lot of minutes, but we will make sure we do the right thing in terms of building him up in minutes. But it’s a very good thing to have him on the training ground again, it would be even a better thing to have him available for games, that’s for sure.

“You can even be on the bench if you haven’t trained, but the question is, is he ready to play some minutes? That’s another question. It’s a difficult one because we don’t play a normal game.

“What I mean is that it could go to extra-time, so that makes it even more complicated if you bring him in. If we think he can only play 10 minutes, if we already think this, and you bring him in 10 minutes before the end and then you go to extra-time, then of course you can take him off again if we have enough players available to bring another player in.

“So maybe a few minutes, but let’s wait and see how it is with him today, how he feels about it himself. It’s clear that after two training sessions, after 100 days, it would not make any sense to start him tomorrow.”

Either way, the good news for Liverpool is Isak has returned from his long injury lay-off looking “stronger” physically after a difficult start to life at Anfield that saw the 26-year-old score just two Premier League goals, the second of which resulted in his broken leg at Spurs before Christmas.

Slot, though, says the player has made great strides in the intervening period and is hopeful he can now play some part as they chase an FA Cup and Champions League double, with the Reds also facing Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals of Europe’s premier club competition.

“Rehab did a great job,” he said. “If I look at him now, compared to where he was before he got injured, I see a player that’s much stronger, physically in a much better place.

“But going from 100 days off towards the intensity of the Premier League and the end phase of the Champions League, where usually the opposition in your face is even harder, what is realistic to expect? That’s difficult, but I’m really, really, really happy that I have at least a No 9 available behind or together with Hugo [Ekitike].

“So that’s already a positive thing, and what to expect? I’ve said many times that next season, when he’s in proper pre-season, we can expect more from him maybe than now, but even the way he is now is already a big step forward for us compared to what we had when he was injured.”

‘Having Mo in the form he’s had for so many years will be a big help’

Slot also confirmed Mohamed Salah would be available to feature at City having recovered from the muscle tweak he picked up in the latter stages of Liverpool’s Champions League last-16 win over Galatasaray before the international break.

“Yes, he is [fit],” Slot said. “He trained with us yesterday, he will train with us today and he’s available for the game tomorrow.”

Salah recently announced he would be leaving the club at the end of the season, with Slot hopeful the Egypt forward can now end his Reds career in style by winning at least one trophy come the end of the season.

“For Mo, I think it doesn’t matter if he’s going to leave the club or if he’s going to stay,” Slot added. “That’s what he’s shown in all these eight or nine years, that he was always available in his best possible shape, and that doesn’t change.

“Now he’s leaving in the end because Mo has always given everything he’s got for this club in all the years that he’s been here. So I would hope that he could give maybe even more, but that’s not realistic because he always gave everything he had. And he will try doing that until the end of the season.

“And if we have Mo in the form he’s had for so many years, that will be a big help for us towards the end of the season.”

Mixed news on Alisson and Frimpong

Slot also provided contrasting updates on the fitness of goalkeeper Alisson Becker and right-back Jeremie Frimpong ahead of this busy period for Liverpool.

Brazil international Alisson will be sidelined until near the end of the campaign with the recurrence of a hamstring injury he sustained in training. However, the Reds boss was more hopeful about Netherlands defender Frimpong who he expects to be available at City this weekend having been substituted in his country’s 1-1 friendly draw with Ecuador on Tuesday.

“He [Alisson] will not be part of the Man City game as well, so he will be out for a bit longer,” Slot said. “Towards the end of the season we expect him to be fit again.

“Yeah, he [Frimpong] seems to be OK. He trained with us yesterday fully and will train with us tomorrow again.

“But he was one of the players I referred to about the Brighton game. I think in the second half you could see that he still has a step to make in terms of every three days.

“And then coming off for the national team, another interesting and difficult choice to make, how many minutes in which game, because games go so fast. As we know, we don’t have eight right full-backs available.”