Arne Slot has conceded that the plan to get Alexander Isak back to 100 percent fitness will see the striker selected in his lineup over others who are fitter.

Isak has yet to complete 90 minutes for Liverpool since his record-breaking deadline day transfer, with the striker yet to put his compromised summer behind him.

A groin injury has only further delayed his integration into the team, and Slot has accepted that Isak will need to be handed minutes ahead of a teammate who is “ahead of him in match fitness.”

“Alex, it will still take a bit of time but he will end up being the player he was at Newcastle if we get him fit, or how he was at Sociedad or all the other clubs he was at,” Slot told reporters, including theEcho.

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“He just needs to become fit. That is the challenge and it is underestimated so much if you bring a player in on September 1, when the league is already three weeks in.

“I do know that a 100 percent fit Alexander Isak is a big, big, big plus for this team. But for him to get there, he might need to have minutes where you could argue that another player might be further ahead of him in terms of match fitness.

“This morning, I had a conversation with the performance staff: ‘What is the best way for him – not for Liverpool – to get him as fast as we can to that 100%?’.

“I always have to find the balance between what is the best for him as an individual and for us as a team.”

Hugo Ekitike has started 11 of Liverpool’s 17 games so far and Slot’s comments hint that it could be the Frenchman who is compromised, unless he opts to play the pair together with Cody Agat then left out.

Why Isak is taking so long to return to fitness

With no friendlies to ease Isak back to full match fitness, Slot underlined the challenge that Liverpool are navigating to do what is best for their No. 9 and results.

“He did one time a sprint above 30km/h in four months. He didn’t do a lot of high intensity runs,” Slot revealed.

“So we had to build him up, which is normal if you have been training on your own. You cannot compare this to a team session.

“If you then get an injury, you are thrown back again. So give him time. The problem is, I play a player – and I have done this with others – who is not 100 percent of their usual match fitness.

“But then I cannot play friendlies. You can do that in pre-season because you don’t care about the results.

“But Alex and Mac Allister are the best examples of that. Conor Bradley got injured in pre-season. Ah, I could go on and on.

“That is the challenge with him. I can see in training sessions, that if he is fully rested, then you can see his quality. We play in short spaces, so the ball comes a lot to him.

“But 11 v 11 on a big pitch, there is a lot of running and not much touching the ball. He is an incredible player.”