‘A roll of the dice’ – Sky reporter stunned by pre-match ‘signal of intent’ from Arne Slot

‘A roll of the dice’ – Sky reporter stunned by pre-match ‘signal of intent’ from Arne Slot

One reporter was captivated by a ‘roll of the dice’ from Arne Slot in terms of his team selection for Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain tonight.

The Dutchman has made five changes from the weekend win over Fulham, most notably bringing both Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike into the starting XI, with the Sweden international making his first start since his recent return from a broken leg.

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Jason McAteer has duly been granted his wish of seeing the two centre-forwards starting together for the Reds, who are tasked with overturning a 2-0 deficit from the first leg, and that duo will play just ahead of Dominik Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz.

Slot has ‘rolled the dice’ by starting Isak

When the Liverpool line-up was announced 75 minutes before kick-off, Sky Sports reporter Adam Bate seemed surprised that Slot has thrown Isak in from the start so soon after making his comeback from an injury which had sidelined him for almost four months.

He posted on the broadcaster’s live web commentary: “Now that is what you call a roll of the dice. Alexander Isak has not started any of Liverpool’s last 26 games and has scored only three goals for the club all season since his summer move from Newcastle, but Arne Slot turns to him this evening.

“Liverpool need something special but it is surely too much to expect the Sweden international to be close to his fluent best? Even so, it is a signal of intent by Slot, who has spoken of taking risks tonight. His first has come before kick-off with that selection.”

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Slot clearly believes that Isak is ready for a start

Isak has had just over half an hour of game-time since returning from injury as a late substitute against PSG last week, so it indeed represents a significant show of faith from Slot to put him into the starting XI tonight, especially when it’s come at the expense of Mo Salah.

The enterprising line-up from the Liverpool head coach shows that he’s determined to go all-out in pursuit of cancelling out the 2-0 deficit from the Parc des Princes, and clearly he must feel that the 26-year-old is ready to play from the start tonight.

It’s been a stop-start debut season at Anfield for the Swedish marksman, who hasn’t had a huge amount of time to repay his club-record transfer fee from last summer, but this is exactly the kind of marquee occasion for which the Reds signed him.

On the previous occasions that Isak and Ekitike played together in attack, LFC thrashed Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 and won away to Inter Milan, so they’ve proven to be effective in tandem in the rare instances that they’ve started simultaneously.

Slot evidently feels that restoring our number 9 to the starting line-up is a gamble worth taking, and we can only hope that it pays off. If tonight is the night that the Swede nets a decisive winner, it’d go a long way towards silencing his doubters.