Will Alexander Isak start for Liverpool against Burnley?

Alexander Isak is in contention to make his Liverpool debut against Burnley (Picture: Getty)

Arne Slot confirmed Alexander Isak is in contention to make his Liverpool debut against Burnley this weekend.

The champions completed the signing of the former Newcastle centre forward on transfer deadline day for a British record transfer fee of £130million .

Having effectively gone on strike in the summer to help facilitate his dream move, Isak is short of match fitness and only appeared fleetingly for Sweden during the international break .

Liverpool have made a flawless start to the new campaign with three wins from three games, including a victory against title rivals Arsenal at Anfield prior to the international break.

With fellow new recruit Hugo Ekitike having made a blistering start to his own Liverpool career there is little need to rush Isak into the starting XI until he is truly ready.

Liverpool fans, however, are desperate to see their new No.9 in action as soon as possible and they are likely to get their wish tomorrow with the Reds back in action at Turf Moor.

‘First of all the Sweden manager John Dahl Tomasson deserves a big, big, big compliment because he gets one of the best strikers in the world in,’ said Slot in his pre-match press conference.

@metrosportuk What will happen to Ekitike? 😬 Liverpool have reportedly agreed a British record fee of £130m with Newcastle for striker Alexander Isak, taking their spending total for the summer transfer window to over £416m – the most of any Premier League club in HISTORY… But is he worth it? #isak #liverpool #newcastle #deadlineday #transfertalk ♬ SICKO MODE – The808Wizrd

‘He has two very important games but understands if he plays him twice for 90 minutes the player would probably get injured.

‘That’s not always easy for a manager that he takes care of the interest of the player. We will treat Alex the same as they did.

‘Don’t expect him to be every single game 90 minutes on the pitch. He missed a proper pre-season and missed three or four months of team sessions. We have to build him up gradually.

‘That’s going to be a challenge but we’ve signed him not just for the upcoming two weeks we’ve signed him for six years, this is what we have to keep in mind.’

While Liverpool were able to celebrate the signing of Isak on deadline day, they were left frustrated in their attempts to sign Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace.

Marc Guehi saw a deadline-day move to Liverpool collapse (Picture: Getty)

The England international appeared destined to complete a cut-price £35m move only for the deal to collapse at the last minute with Palace unable to source a suitable replacement in time.

‘I think it would be ridiculous if I was to deny that we were close to signing him,’ added Slot. ‘These things happen in football and it has happened to our players in the past that they thought they were so close to signing somewhere else and then at the last moment things changed, this can happen.

‘For me, we would have liked to have signed him of course because we were in for him and if we feel we can strengthen the team with a chance in the market then we will not hesitate to do so and that is what we tried to do.

‘We played Arsenal and [Ibrahima] Konate and [Virgil] van Dijk played an outstanding game and Joe Gomez came in 20 minutes before the end and did good as well. With us signing Giovanni Leoni who had his first international call up, it’s not like all of a sudden we don’t have options in that position anymore.

‘It is a pity, not only for us but for the player I think. He is in a good place playing at Crystal Palace where he won the FA Cup and Charity Shield with a very good manager as well.