Why Alexander Isak is not in Liverpool squad vs Burnley after Arne Slot warning

Liverpool star Alexander Isak will NOT make his debut for the Reds against Burnley having been left out of the squad. The Swedish striker completed a British record £130m move to Anfield on deadline day.

But he has only had a limited amount of time training with his new teammates. Isak was immediately called up for international duty with Sweden.

He is also still working himself towards full fitness having not had a pre-season with former club Newcastle United. And it appears that he is not totally ready to make his Liverpool bow.

Isak was not with the Liverpool squad to arrive at Turf Moor ahead of Sunday's clash with Burnley. Liverpool boss Arne Slot had already warned that his new forward would have to be eased into duty.

Speaking about a potential debut for Isak vs Burnley, boss Arne Slot said: "First of all I think the Swedish manager, Jon Dahl Tomasson, deserves a big, big, big compliment because he gets one of the best, maybe the best striker in the world in and needs to play two very important games for his country, but understands if he would play him twice for 90 minutes the player would have probably been injured for multiple weeks.

"That is not always easy for a manager, that he takes care of the interest of the player, so he deserves a big compliment for that and we will treat Alex the same as they did.

"So, 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.

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"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 so 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."

Isak's next chance for his Liverpool debut could now come next week. Slot's side kick off their Champions League campaign against Atletico Madrid at Anfield before welcoming Merseyside rivals Everton next weekend.