Why Alexander Isak and Curtis Jones arre absent for Liverpool against Burnley as Arne Slot explains

Alexander Isak is absent from Liverpool’s squad for today’s Premier League clash against Burnley at Turf Moor.

The striker signed for the Reds for £125 million - a British transfer record - from Newcastle United on transfer deadline day. However, Isak has arrived at Anfield short of fitness having trained alone for much of pre-season as he pursued a move to Anfield.

Head coach Arne Slot warned that Isak was lacking fitness at his pre-match press conference and decided it would be best he does not feature. On Isak’s absence against Burnley, Slot said: “As everybody knew he didn’t have any team training at Newcastle then went to the national team [and] only played there for 15-20 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.

“That’s always difficult to say [how quickly he will be] up to full speed. What I can say is that normally in a pre-season, after one or two weeks you play your first 45-60 minutes, you build that up gradually. But that you do with proper training sessions during the week and now we hardly have any proper training sessions with the team because we play, like I just said, 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. It’s going to be interesting for the performance staff, for us, to get the best out of him at the start but also to keep him available for the end.”

Liverpool are unchanged from the 1-0 victory over Arsenal before the international break. Dominik Szoboszlai continues at right-back despite Conor Bradley playing twice for Northern Ireland and Jeremie Frimpong recovering from a hamstring issue. Both recognised full-backs are among the substitutes.

Curtis Jones is unavailable after picking up an injury in the Arsenal win. It means that there is a place for 18-year-old Trey Nyoni on the bench.

Liverpool go in search of a fourth successive victory this campaign to maintain their perfect start to their Premier League title defence.

On the Burnley clash, Slot said: "Defensively solid but I don’t give them enough credit if I only talk about that because [the] first goal they scored against Sunderland was a great team goal.

“A good team. Like all the others we know, and my experience from last season is when the teams that are relegated now, I replace them with the ones that are promoted, we had problems at Ipswich, we had problems at Leicester, and we had problems at Southampton. We only won it in the end phase of the game. We know that every game is difficult, and I only have to look back at last season to understand that."

Liverpool: Alisson, Van Dijk, Konate, Kerkez, Wirtz, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Salah, Gakpo, Ekitike, Gravenberch.

Subs: Mamardashvili, Gomez, Endo, Bradley, Chiesa, Robertson, Frimpong, Nyoni, Ngumoha.