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Arne Slot said he was impressed by Alexander Isak's fitness levels as Liverpool's record signing made his debut for the club in Wednesday's 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid, and added he could be in line to start against Everton on Saturday.
After a disrupted summer schedule, Isak has set about immediately getting back up to match speed. The forward, who trained away from his Newcastle United team-mates over recent months, could only manage 18 minutes over the international break for Sweden and then was omitted from the squad for Sunday's win over Burnley.
So there was some surprise, therefore, when he was named in the starting XI against Atletico, although Slot revealed ahead of the game that was always his plan.
After a quiet start to the game, Isak grew into proceedings and produced two dangerous efforts around the half-hour mark. He also linked well with Florian Wirtz and seemed sharp for a player who is not yet firing on all cylinders.
Isak was withdrawn after 58 minutes for Hugo Ekitike, but clearly left a positive first impression on his new boss.
"Yeah, particularly because I think in the 60 minutes he played he seemed to be quite fit," said Slot, when asked whether he was impressed by the the record signing's debut.
"It wasn't as if after 10 minutes he was already very tired. He could just play at this level quite well after only one or two weeks of team sessions so that was the most positive thing and that he can play football and that is a joy to watch.
"That's not a surprise to me, but he was maybe fitter than I expected But again, the fans don't get the hopes up too high, because it's good that he had his first 90 minutes, but we play three times a week and that's a bit too much for him still."
Pressed on whether Isak might start against Everton, Slot told TNT Sports: "It could be, but again, it could never be a 90 minute for him.
"So that is what we all have to understand, that people sometimes are like, 'why is that not possible?'.
"The problem is you need to make sure players are prepared for the program and therefore you need train with them. At this moment of time, that is not possible, but we are really happy that he could start today.
"He was good today and when Hugo came in he was a big threat also, so we have two great no.9s and we're going to use them both of them throughout the whole period that they were here but definitely now in the start."
Liverpool won 3-2 at Anfield thanks to Virgil van Dijk's injury-time header. Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah had given the Reds a two-goal lead within six minutes, before Marcos Llorente squared things up heading into the latter stages.
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