{"id":453188,"date":"2025-09-26T16:23:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T16:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/453188\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T16:23:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T16:23:16","slug":"alexander-isak-set-to-start-again-as-arne-slot-hints-at-federico-chiesa-role-liverpool-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/453188\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Isak set to start again as Arne Slot hints at Federico Chiesa role – Liverpool FC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arne Slot<\/a> has all but confirmed Alexander Isak<\/a> will make a second consecutive start as Liverpool head to Crystal Palace<\/a>, with Federico Chiesa<\/a> then in line to replace him.<\/b><\/p>\n

Isak\u2019s minutes have been carefully managed since his \u00a3125 million move from Newcastle<\/a> on deadline day, having not trained or played as part of a team since the end of May.<\/p>\n

So far the No. 9 has clocked 126 minutes on the pitch over three appearances: 23 minutes on his debut against Everton<\/a>, 58 minutes on his first start against Atletico Madrid and then 45 minutes against Southampton<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

With Hugo Ekitike<\/a> suspended and Chiesa playing his first full 90 minutes since February in midweek, Isak is poised to make back-to-back starts in Liverpool\u2019s trip to Palace.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s able to play minutes again,\u201d Slot told reporters on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI still feel 90 is [too much]. It depends also on the pace and intensity of the game, but that might be a bit too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only that, but also for the long term. You can give a player maybe one \u2013 I would call stupid \u2013 hit, to bring him to 90, then you brought him too far over the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I don\u2019t think it\u2019s smart to play him for 90 yet, but he\u2019s further into his pre-season now.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally after two or three weeks in pre-season players go to 60, 70 minutes and at some clubs they even bring them to 90, but if you look at our pre-season we mainly bring them to 60, 70 minutes then.\u201d<\/p>\n

The expectation therefore is that Isak will start before Chiesa comes off the bench for the final 20 or 30 minutes, with Slot and his medical staff making a decision based on the Swede\u2019s workload during the game.<\/p>\n

Chiesa is \u201cshowing himself\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe positive thing is that Federico Chiesa<\/a> is showing himself at the moment,\u201d the head coach reflected on his options without the suspended Ekitike.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s also a chance for him now to be on the bench and maybe get minutes with Hugo not being there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liverpool have other options for the centre-forward role, including youngster Jayden Danns<\/a>, but he is more likely to be involved when the U21s head to Ipswich<\/a> earlier on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The likes of Cody Gakpo<\/a>, Dominik Szoboszlai<\/a> and Florian Wirtz<\/a> can fill in as No. 9s but are expected to start in other roles and are significantly less effective up front.<\/p>\n

Ekitike is only set to miss one game following his red card for two bookable offences on Tuesday, meaning he should then take over from Isak away to Galatasaray next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arne Slot has all but confirmed Alexander Isak will make a second consecutive start as Liverpool head to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9261,22276,152263,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-453188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alexander-isak","9":"tag-federico-chiesa","10":"tag-liverpool-vs-crystal-palace","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115271526833806716","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}