Liverpool manager Arne Slot said the decision to substitute Alexander Isak at half-time in their 5-1 thrashing of Eintracht Frankfurt was because he “felt his groin a little bit”.
Slot admitted he will “hope for the best” after the Swedish striker had to be replaced midway through the Reds’ Champions League clash in Germany, which they won comfortably to end a run of four-straight defeats.
Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konte, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai all found the net at a rain-soaked Waldstadion after Rasmus Kristensen had given the hosts a 26th-minute lead.
Slot had made five changes from the team that lost to rivals Manchester United 2-1 on Sunday, with Mohamed Salah among those dropped to the bench.
The change in personnel appeared to pay off, however the removal of their £125m signing gave the Liverpool boss cause for concern.
“He [Isak] had to go off at half-time because he felt his groin a little bit,” Slot confirmed to TNT Sports.
“That’s a pity. It’s such a difficult balance to find with a player who has missed three months.
“You bring him slowly, people argue to play him longer. Now we play him for the second time in three days and he has to go off. Let’s hope for the best.”
It remains to be seen whether Isak’s injury is severe enough that he will miss the trip to Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday.
But Slot remained in good spirits after what he believes was an important win.
“We needed to win,” he said. “What we needed more was another performance that created a load of chances but also the players get their reward, and that’s what happened today.
“I saw a lot of similarities to our other games. The first chance they got was a goal, maybe their only chance, but it is easier to control a game when you are 3-1 up rather than 1-0 down.
“The main difference between this game and the four before was in most of them, the other team scored a set piece but now we were able to score two.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: 101greatgoals.com
