Arne Slot left to ‘hope for the best’ after injured Isak forced off against Frankfurt

Arne Slot welcomed an emphatic end to Liverpool’s losing run but fears he could be without Alexander Isak for several weeks after the British record signing sustained a groin problem against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Liverpool produced a 5-1 rout in Germany with Slot’s call for set-piece improvement answered by two goals from corners by Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté. The win ended a sequence of four successive defeats for the Premier League champions but Isak had to be withdrawn after 45 minutes of his second start in four days. Slot believes the workload may have been too much for the striker, who missed most of pre-season at Newcastle in his attempt to force a £125m move to Liverpool.

Jeremie Frimpong is also facing another spell on the sidelines after sustaining his second hamstring injury of the season.

Slot said of Isak: “Let’s hope it’s not that bad, but he had to go off because he felt his groin. Many people wanted me to play him more and we had to find the balance and unfortunately today that balance didn’t work out for us perfectly. But let’s hope for the best. When he came to the club, he had hardly trained. So you bring him step by step forward and then you feel there must be a moment where he can play twice a week, and the first time we try – he did it with Sweden as well – he has to go off.”

The Liverpool head coach denied taking a risk on the Sweden international by starting him twice in quick succession. “Alex wasn’t in the red zone because we wouldn’t have played him,” he said. “Normally you try to prepare players for once‑a‑week football, but if you are Liverpool you play every three days or normally three times in eight days but we’ve been unfortunate this season we have to play three times in seven days.

“We’ve tried to prepare him for that programme which is not always so easy when you don’t have a pre‑season. We were really careful. He was perfectly fit when he came back from the national team and before the [Manchester] United game.

“We thought he was well prepared for that but the margins at the top are small. I’m hoping it won’t be that bad, because if he’s out for a few weeks it will put him back. So let’s wait.”

Liverpool’s performance had similarities to their recent defeats, Slot insisted, including: “We created a few chances before we conceded and the first chance we conceded was immediately a goal.

“In the end it turned out to be the only chance we conceded. Why was that? Because we went 3-1 up, so then it’s easier to control the game when you’re 1-0 down all the time. We were able to score two set-pieces and that made a big, big difference.”

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