LIVERPOOL – Liverpool football coach Arne Slot criticized Tottenham player Micky van de Ven’s intervention on his ward Alexander Isak.
The Sweden international will miss the reigning Premier League champions for around two months after undergoing ankle surgery.
Isak is one of Liverpool’s summer acquisitions, the club hired him from Newcastle for a record 125 million pounds. In the weekend meeting with the Roosters, the Dutch defender injured him after scoring a goal.
“He’s going to be out for a few months. It’s a big disappointment for him and for us. It was an irresponsible thing to do from my point of view. When you do something like that 10 times, I think there’s a 10-fold chance it’s going to be a serious injury.” the BBC quotes Sloto’s opinion.
Frank stood up for his client
Tottenham coach Thomas Frank had a different opinion on the intervention and defended his client. “I disagree in many ways. Micky will do anything to prevent a goal, in this situation he wanted to block the shot, so he went for the slide. Unfortunately, Isak ran in there in a way that made it look worse than it actually was. It was a natural defensive tackle from a defender. You never see reckless things from Micky, he is a very fair player.” AFP quoted Frank.
The injury means another complication for the Swedish striker in his new place of work. Liverpool are going through a crisis and the Gunners have scored just three goals in 16 games this season. As a result of the negotiations on his transfer, he did not complete a proper pre-season training in Newcastle and thus fell behind his new teammates in the fall. The first half-season of the year 2025/26 was already marked by a groin injury. His absence will be a major complication for Sloto as Mohamed Salah is away at the Africa Cup of Nations and Cody Gakpo will not be ready to return to action until the start of the new year following a muscle injury.
Slot confirmed that it must be a very difficult time for Isak. “You come to a new club and he was excited and wanted to show his qualities straight away, but it just wasn’t possible. If you haven’t trained with a team at the highest level for three or four months and you’re playing in a league like the Premier League, you just need to be in shape to make an impact. When we brought him into the team, we knew it would take him some time to be ready. It’s very unfortunate that he got injured because even with this goal we saw that he is close to the form he had last season at Newcastle,” the Liverpool coach added to Isak’s address.
- Author: © List/
- Source: TASR
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