Arne Slot on Friday described new signing Alexander Isak as “maybe the best striker in the world” but warned he would be eased into action gradually after a disrupted pre-season.
The Premier League champions signed the Sweden forward from Newcastle on transfer deadline day for a British-record fee of £125 million ($169 million), adding further firepower to their impressive squad.
Isak’s arrival after a protracted chase was part of an eye-catching splurge of more than £400 million in the summer transfer window, though a deadline-day move to sign Crystal Palace and England defender Marc Guehi collapsed.
“A lot of things happened on the last day (of the transfer window), which is not always the situation, because last season we hardly did anything during the whole window,” Slot said on Friday.
“But the thing that pleases me most, of course, is us getting the deal for Alex over the line.”
The Dutchman praised Sweden manager Jon Dahl Tomasson for the way he handled Isak’s workload during the international break.
The 25-year-old, who has not played any club football this season, was on the bench for Sweden’s 2-2 World Cup qualifying draw against Slovenia and was brought on as a late substitute in the 2-0 defeat against Kosovo.
“He gets one of the best, maybe the best striker in the world, and needs to play two very important games for his country, but understands that if he would play him twice for 90 minutes, then probably the player would have been injured,” Slot said.
“And that’s not always easy for a manager, that he takes care of the interest of a player, so he deserves a big compliment for that. And we will treat Alex the same as they did, so don’t expect him to be 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, hardly any training time.”
– Isak criticism –
Slot, speaking ahead of Sunday’s match against Burnley, brushed off criticism that Isak received after he agitated to leave Newcastle, where he still had three more years to run on his contract.
“Sometimes people cheer for you, so I think after he won the League Cup (trophy last season), everyone was really happy with him,” he said.
“And in other moments you get criticised — this is part of his life, my life, our jobs. Now he’s a player for us and I’m really happy with that.”
Slot, whose team have won all three of their Premier League matches so far this season, admitted he had been keen to sign Guehi but would not be drawn about any future bid.
“I think it would be a bit ridiculous if I’m going to deny that we were close to signing him,” he said. “That’s so out in the open, that would be ridiculous.
“These things happen in football, it happened to our players maybe in the past as well, that they thought they were so close on signing somewhere else, and then in the last moment things changed.”
Slot, who is eyeing a record 21st English league title with Liverpool, said he had options in defence.
“It’s a pity, not only for us but also for the player, I think,” he said. “But he’s in a good place playing at Palace, where he won the Community Shield and the FA Cup, with a very good manager as well. So let’s see what the future brings for him and for us.”
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