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Former Liverpool player Don Hutchison has warned Arne Slot that starting Alexander Isak during Sunday’s Merseyside Derby would be a terrible idea.
Isak is working his way back from a three-month absence with a broken leg, but after Hugo Ekitike suffered a ruptured Achilles in midweek, Slot does not have the luxury of easing the Swede back in.
Having played 45 minutes of Tuesday’s defeat against Paris Saint-Germain, the Liverpool head coach will be weighing up whether to include Isak from the start at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. But according to Hutchison, the Reds’ No. 9 will become a target for some flying tackles if he begins the game.
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Photo Credit: Getty Images/Nick Taylor/Clive Brunskill/Allsport Everton players will ‘go right through’ Isak
Having played for both Liverpool and Everton during the 1990s, Hutchison knows more than most what to expect from the derby.
And while assessing how the Reds can cope without Ekitike for another crucial game, the pundit told ESPN FC that whatever plan Slot has, it cannot include Isak, who will be set upon by Everton’s centre-backs.
“It can’t be Isak from the start, it can’t be,” he said. “You imagine Jarrad Branthwaite and Tarkowski. First minute of the game they’re going to go right through him, and rightly so, it’s a Merseyside Derby.”
Instead, Hutchison has urged Slot to protect Isak and perhaps go with Cody Gakpo through the middle, or keep the recent switch to 4-2-2-2 and play Gakpo in a narrow front two with Mohamed Salah.
Photo by Ibrahim Ezzat/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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“It has to be Cody Gakpo through the middle or if it’s a front two of him and Mo Salah,” he said.
“Arne Slot’s got to come up with something where he can maybe navigate through the early parts of that game and then say to Isak ‘right, you might have half an hour at the end of the game when it’s a little bit more open, once the early part of the Merseyside Derby has calmed down a yard.’
“I couldn’t think of a worse game to start him in, because he will get lifted in the first couple of minutes, and it will be non-stop.”
Liverpool badly need to keep Isak fit through the next six Premier League games and beyond. So, while most supporters would prefer to see him start against Everton, keeping him back for what is likely to be an intensely physical match might be the best idea.
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