Alexander Isak was not named in the Liverpool squad for the trip to Burnley with Arne Slot and his staff taking a cautious approach with their new striker.
This Is Anfield understands Isak has been left out of the squad to face Burnley in order to continue his focus on training.
Though he came off the bench for the final 18 minutes of Sweden’s 2-0 defeat to Kosovo on Monday, he has otherwise not trained or played regularly as part of a squad since the end of May.
“We’ve decided it is the best for him to have a proper week of training instead of every time going for five or 10 minutes of playing,” Slot told Premier League‘s official channels ahead of kickoff.
“I can assure the fans that he will be involved on Wednesday – but this game came a bit too early.”
Slot elaborated further when speaking to Sky Sports, saying: “As everybody knew, he hasn’t had any team training with Newcastle, then went to national team and only played 15 to 20 minutes.
“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.”
Slot went on to suggest that Isak would be capable of playing upwards of 45 minutes in the Champions League clash with Atletico on Wednesday night.
“Normally in a pre-season after one or two weeks you play your first 45 to 60 minutes, and you build that up gradually,” he said.
“But you do that with proper training sessions during the week; now we hardly have any proper training sessions with the team because we play 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.
“So it’s going to be interesting for the performance staff, for us, to get the best out of him from the start, but also keep him available until the end.
“Because another player that wasn’t available for team training for a long time, the one from Brentford, Wissa, he got two 90-minute games and he’s out with an injury now for four weeks or maybe more.
“That tells you how difficult the balance is with a player that missed team sessions for such a long time.”
It is therefore almost certain Isak will be involved against Atletico, with Slot able to name 12 substitutes in European competition.
But Slot’s attacking options from the bench at Turf Moor will be Rio Ngumoha and Federico Chiesa – both of whom have scored match-winning goals as substitutes already this season.
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