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Arne Slot has hinted that Liverpool's record signing, Alexander Isak, is set to make his debut against Atletico Madrid in the midweek clash, following his absence against Burnley.
Isak was notably absent from the squad that journeyed to Turf Moor on Sunday for the Premier League face-off with the newly promoted Clarets, with the Reds going on to seal a 1-0 win to maintain their perfect start to the Premier League season.
The forward, who sealed a $169 million transfer to Anfield from Newcastle United at the start of the month, made his first appearance since May as a late substitute for Sweden last Monday.
Slot suggested that the Burnley gam came too soon for Isak and clarified why the 25-year-old is almost guaranteed to play when the Reds kick off their Champions League campaign at home to Atletico on Wednesday.
"As everybody knew he didn't have any team training at Newcastle then went to the national team (and) only played there for 15-20 minutes," Slot explained.
"We think, with a week where we play three games in seven days, this is the best lead-up for him to be available against Atletico Madrid."
When questioned about how quickly Isak can reach full speed, Slot told Sky Sports: "That's always difficult to say, up to full speed.
"What I can say is that normally in a pre-season, after one or two weeks you play your first 45-60 minutes, you build that up gradually.
"But that you do with proper training sessions during the week and now we hardly have any proper training sessions with the team because we play, like I just said, three games in seven days.
"So, where would he be? Second or third week of pre-season, I would say, so able to hopefully play during the week 45 minutes or more, but then two days later, as you know, we play Everton again.
"It's going to be interesting for the performance staff, for us, to get the best out of him at the start but also to keep him available for the end."
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Slot would give more detail about his plans for Isak against Atletico following the win over Burnley, explaining that the striker is only likely to play a small part in the game.
"You make a choice for a good reason, for a good argument. That choice was because he missed out for four months on team training," Slot said.
"He's in his second or third week of pre-season. We have given him a proper week and then we think maybe he will get more than 10 or 15 minutes in our Wednesday game and that's the way to build him up. He needs proper playing time but also build him up so he has a good base."
* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can read the original story in the Liverpool ECHO by clicking here.
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