Isak forced a move away from Newcastle United and hence has not been playing competitive football since last season ended. He was not a part of Eddie Howe\u2019s pre-season squad that toured South Asia and has not played a single minute in three league games this season.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Slot commended Swedish head coach Jon Dalhl Tomasson for his cautious approach by not playing Isak in the two games during the international break and confirmed he will be getting the same treatment by Liverpool, which will see the 25-year-old ease into the first team.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cFirst of all I think the Swedish manager, Jon Dahl Tomasson, deserves a big, big, big compliment because he gets one of the best, maybe the best striker in the world in and needs to play two very important games for his country, but understands if he would play him twice for 90 minutes the player would have probably been injured for multiple weeks. That is not always easy for a manager, that he takes care of the interest of the player, so he deserves a big compliment for that and we will treat Alex the same as they did.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cSo, don\u2019t expect him every single game 90 minutes on the pitch \u2013 that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cSo, that\u2019s going to be a challenge but we\u2019ve signed him not only for the upcoming two weeks, we\u2019ve signed him, I think, for six years so this is what we have to keep in mind and what the fans have to keep in mind if they see that I take him off at a certain moment or I only bring him in for a small amount of minutes. That\u2019s all for the long-term fitness of the player,\u201d said Slot in his pre-game conference.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Slot also praised Harvey Elliott for his contribution to his Liverpool team after the midfielder completed a season-long loan move to Aston Villa on deadline day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cSo, that\u2019s going to be a challenge but we\u2019ve signed him not only for the upcoming two weeks, we\u2019ve signed him, I think, for six years so this is what we have to keep in mind and what the fans have to keep in mind if they see that I take him off at a certain moment or I only bring him in for a small amount of minutes. That\u2019s all for the long-term fitness of the player,\u201d said Slot in his pre-game conference.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\"I know everyone always talks about Mo [Salah], Virgil [van Dijk] and the others if we win the league. But players like him were definitely also the reason why we could win it [the Premier League], because he always was positive if he had to play five or 10 minutes he helped the team. That is partly the success of the team is the ones that don't play that much have the right mindset. I think he is completely ready now to show the quality he has at Aston Villa,\u201d said Slot.<\/p>\r\n\r\n