SWEDES & SOUR

Arsenal's Gyokeres and Isak of Liverpool are taking time to settle in and they are certainly dividing opinion among fans of their clubs

- BY JOHN CROSS

VIKTOR GYOKERES is dividing opinion like few other Premier League strikers.

IN an ideal world for Arne Slot, the fitness programme designed for Alexander Isak upon his Liverpool arrival would not have been so detailed.

The nature of his protracted and acrimonious move from Newcastle in the summer transfer window inevitably had a knock-on effect.

By the time he made his first appearance for the Reds, he had gone four months without any club football.

He played just 18 minutes for Sweden against Kosovo last month.

“The Swedish manager (Jon Dahl Tomasson) deserves a big compliment because he gets the best striker in the world but understands if he plays 90 minutes twice, he might be injured for a number of weeks,’ said Liverpool head coach Slot after the last international break. “We will treat him the same?

Since then the £125m striker has amassed 312 of the 630 minutes played by the Reds, excluding stoppage time.

That lays bare that the plan has been to use him for roughly half the time.