Arne Slot has confirmed he will “mess up the party” by blocking Alexander Isak’s return for Sweden’s World Cup play-offs as he reveals a fresh return timeline for his £125m striker.
In the cold light of a Merseyside March, the narrative of Liverpool’s season has become inextricably linked to a player who has spent more time in the treatment room than on the Anfield turf.
Alexander Isak was supposed to be the final piece of the puzzle a £125m statement of intent that would transition the Reds from the era of old to a new, clinical dominance.
As Tottenham visit Anfield this Sunday, memories of Isak’s last contribution a goal followed by a sickening collision in North London serve as a reminder of the thin margins between a title charge and a “year of transition.”
The narrative of Slot’s recent tenure can be bookended by two meetings with Spurs. Last April, Anfield was a site of coronation as the Reds dismantled the Londoners 5-1 to seal the league. By December, however, the joy of a 2-1 win in the capital was instantly soured by the sight of record-signing Alexander Isak crumpled on the turf.
The Swede, the £125m crown jewel of a staggering £450m summer spending spree, had just unleashed the shot for his second goal in five games.
That was the day Alexander Isak, the most expensive player in British football history, finally looked like the world-beater Liverpool thought they’d bought from Newcastle. He scored, he led the line with a terrifying grace, and then, in a split second of violence, his season and perhaps Liverpool’s momentum was shattered.
The collision with Micky van de Ven that left Isak with a broken leg and ankle has become the defining “what if” of Slot’s second century of matches.
The anatomy of an sbsence
The impact of losing Isak cannot be overstated. When the former Newcastle man arrived as part of a £450m summer overhaul, he brought with him a pedigree for efficiency.
Last season, his chance conversion rate sat at 19 percent; the year before, 21 percent. In his absence, Liverpool have plummeted to a conversion rate of just 7.6 percent the sixth worst in the Premier League.
Slot has been candid about the void left by his record signing.
“If you miss out on Alex, the biggest signing we made, that has had a massive impact,” Slot admitted. “Look at how many goals we’ve scored this season. That’s ridiculously low for the team. I think in the last 10 years of Liverpool, if you look at the forwards, it’s so much more. And of course it has an impact that one of the forwards that we brought in to score goals was injured.”
The frustration for Slot lies in the fact that the chances are being created, but the specialist is missing.
“I think I’ve said 150 times how many chances we had in the game compared to the other team,” Slot said. “Do you think it would have had an impact if we had one of the best goalscorers in this league in the last three, four or five years available throughout the whole season? I think it’s safe to say that this would have had a massive impact on our performances, because you also saw almost every game you see how much impact a goal can have. Goals in a low-scoring sport, and that is football because we’re not playing basketball with a game that’s ending up 100 against 98, are vital.”
The long road from December
Isak’s Liverpool career has been a series of false starts. With only three goals in 16 appearances before Micky van de Ven’s challenge broke his leg and ankle in December, the striker had yet to truly find his rhythm. Now, three-and-a-half months into his recovery, the light at the end of the tunnel is visible, but faint.
The slide from first place in December to sixth today has been a bitter pill for the Anfield faithful to swallow, especially following such heavy investment in the likes of Isak and Florian Wirtz. Slot remains adamant that while injuries are a factor, the league table doesn’t lie.
“It was something we were aware of, in the back of our mind that that could happen with signing so many new players, but not something we or I was expecting,” Slot said.
“You always know if you let go of so many players and you bring in so many new players, it could mean transition is needed, but the expectations were not that we were having a season as we are having now.”
There are reasons. “I don’t think there are many clubs in the history of this league who have had a lot of injuries and performed as expected,” Slot noted. And yet, he feels, they deserve to be where they are now. Liverpool were first when they last hosted Tottenham. They are sixth now. The standings suggest dramatic regression, even after heavy spending.
“I think the league table has always given a fair reflection of what we’ve done,” said Slot. “I do feel if only a few things would have been a bit more normal then we would have had many more points but it’s not realistic for the way we’ve played this season to say that we would have been able to compete with Arsenal.
Back in February the Dutchman was optimistic whilst also giving a update of the Swede recovery by stating: “We also expect a different player from the end of the season to the one we had in the first part,”
“If a player has had four or five months of only individual training, we cannot expect he is up to speed straight away. So unfortunately for him and us, we haven’t used the best Alex yet but this club and our fans will hopefully see the best Alex this season but, for sure, in the upcoming years.” Slot concluded.
While Graham Potter and the Swedish national team have been “keeping their fingers crossed” for a March return, Slot has moved to dampen expectations.
Speaking at the AXA Training Centre, the Dutchman confirmed that while Isak has swapped the gym for the grass, he is far from a first-team return and that availability won’t come in time to help Sweden in their World Cup play-offs against Ukraine.
Slot was blunt about his intention to prioritise the player’s long-term fitness over international ambitions.
“If you ask me now I would say I don’t expect that [him playing for Sweden],” said Slot. “Again, I have to mess up the party again. Let’s say he comes back at the beginning of April, he has been out for three-and-a-half months and not trained with the team for three-and-a-half months. The last time he did that, it took him a while to get up to speed.”
“If you ask me now I would say I don’t expect [Isak to go on duty with Sweden],” Slot said via the Liverpool Echo. “But we are still one and a half weeks off, there is always co-operation between club and country but I don’t expect him to play for us before that.”
However, he is also aware that when Isak does return likely in the FA Cup quarter-final against Manchester City on April 4 he will carry the weight of his price tag.
“I am really, really looking forward to having him back but don’t get the expectations again so high that the minute he is on the pitch, he is at the level of what we spent that money on,” Slot warned.
Slot’s current crop of attackers has mustered only 27 league goals between them fewer than Mohamed Salah managed on his own last term. It is a startling regression for a side that spent £450m to avoid exactly this kind of transition.
“I don’t think it’s been helpful for the team that many times we have felt we are there, another player got injured, another player got injured. We constantly felt we had to do it with 12-13 players.”
Liverpool must now navigate the final chapters of this “transitional” season with the tools currently at their disposal.
The hope remains that by the time the FA Cup quarter-final at Manchester City rolls around in April, the running shoes will finally be traded for football boots, and the “best Alex” can finally begin to repay that record-breaking faith.
Until then, the Reds must find their clinical edge elsewhere, or risk the gap to the top four becoming as wide as the void left by their absent number nine.
