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Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has confirmed his starting XI for the game against Burnley at Turf Moor, with Alexander Isak left out after his British record transfer move from Newcastle United before the international break.
Dominik Szoboszlai retains his place in the team. He starts at right-back again, with Alisson Becker in goal and Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk and Milos Kerkez making up the rest of the back four. But Isak has missed a whole summer of training and is still working his way back to full sharpness.
Ryan Gravenberch, who was rested for the second match of the international break, starts in midfield alongside Alexis Mac Allister. Mohamed Salah, Florian Wirtz, Cody Gakpo and Hugo Ekitike make up the rest of the team in attack.
Isak is not among the players who could change the game from the bench, but Slot does have Federico Chiesa and Rio Ngumoha to turn to. Curtis Jones is injured, while Jeremie Frimpong is not yet back.
"Maybe people don’t believe me if I give you this answer, but I haven’t spoken to [Isak] that much," Slot said in his pre-match press conference on Friday.
"So, I spoke to him after he signed by phone because he had to go to the national team and by the way I, 99 out of 100 times, treat my players during international breaks is I leave them for the manager they are working with over there.
"So, I texted him now maybe once or twice because he is new to us [and] I wanted to know how he did. But I do have to get to know him as a person much better in the upcoming days and weeks.
"But although we find it very important how someone is because we have such a great culture here at this club, we mainly sign a player also for his qualities and therefore I don’t need to call them.
"We faced him a few times, I faced him a few times, and I know what a quality player he is.
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"Don’t expect him every single game 90 minutes on the pitch — that’s 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.
"So, that’s going to be a challenge but we’ve signed him not only for the upcoming two weeks, we’ve signed him, I think, for six years.
"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’s all for the long-term fitness of the player."
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