Arne Slot's Gamble on Isak Backfires at Anfield
Arne Slot walked into Anfield on Tuesday night needing a European miracle. He left with his judgment under fire and his project at Liverpool suddenly looking very small against the Champions League’s biggest stage.
At the heart of the storm: his decision to start Alexander Isak.
A gamble that baffled the old guard
“If a player hasn’t featured for three months then faces the best team in Europe, he should be on the bench.”
Dietmar Hamann didn’t dance around it on Sky. The former Germany international was stunned that Isak, who had been out from late December to early April and had only dipped his toes back into action in last week’s 0–2 first-leg defeat in Paris, walked straight into the starting XI for the return.
Hamann was just as unconvinced by Slot’s reasoning.
“He doesn’t want to use him as a sub because he might not have enough energy for extra time. Honestly, I’ve always respected Slot, but I’ve never heard of this approach. It might have happened somewhere, but not in the Champions League.”
Slot had explained that he preferred to start Isak rather than risk throwing him on late and draining him in a possible extra 30 minutes. The idea was to control his minutes, not chase them.
“Playing 45 minutes and then assessing at half-time whether he could add five or ten more was an option,” the Liverpool manager said.
In theory, it sounded calculated. On the pitch, it looked like a reach.
Isak starts, but never truly arrives
Liverpool paid Newcastle United €145 million for Isak last summer. They bought a centrepiece, a statement. What they have so far is a question mark: three goals in 19 appearances and a player still searching for rhythm, let alone dominance.
Slot insisted the Swede was ready. He pointed to two near-misses as proof.
The 26-year-old did get into promising positions, twice coming close to scoring, but on one of those chances he had already strayed offside before PSG goalkeeper Matvey Safonov shut him down. The moments flickered, never burned.
“He was ready. If I’d felt he wasn’t ready, he wouldn’t have played,” Slot stressed afterwards.
The numbers, and the eye test, told a harsher story. Isak lasted only 45 minutes before being hooked for Cody Gakpo at half-time.
That change was damning in itself. The reaction from the pundits was even more so.
“Nowhere near fit”
Stephen Warnock didn’t sugarcoat his verdict on the BBC.
The former Liverpool full-back argued that Gakpo “did more in the first five minutes than Isak did in the whole first half,” a brutal line that cut straight to the heart of the selection debate. For Warnock, the issue wasn’t just form. It was physical readiness.
Isak, he said, was “nowhere near fit” and “non-existent” on the night.
“And he [Slot] thinks he can throw him on against PSG, in the biggest game of the season against the best team in Europe, and get a performance out of him in 45 minutes?” Warnock asked, the question hanging over Slot’s entire decision-making process.
The criticism wasn’t about hindsight. It was about the logic of asking an undercooked striker, with one brief comeback appearance behind him, to lead the line in a must-win Champions League knockout tie.
Anfield waits for a twist that never comes
Liverpool had already made life hard for themselves in Paris, outplayed and beaten 2–0 in the first leg. Anfield has seen bigger deficits overturned, but this time the script never flipped.
There was a moment, though, when the stadium held its breath.
After half an hour, with the tie still within reach, Virgil van Dijk rose and seemed certain to drag Liverpool back into it. His chance was the kind that can tilt a night, a season, a narrative.
Marquinhos had other ideas. The PSG captain retreated, read the danger, and produced a goal-line clearance that felt as decisive as any goal. Instead of ignition, Liverpool got frustration. Instead of belief, doubt seeped in.
From there, Paris tightened their grip. They didn’t just protect their first-leg cushion; they extended it. Ousmane Dembélé, electric and ruthless, struck twice as PSG silenced Anfield with a second 2–0 win, this time on English soil.
Over two legs, Liverpool never laid a glove on them in the way a true contender must.
Pressure without a trophy lift
Slot arrived at this tie already under pressure, a strange reality for a coach who delivered the English league title last season. The domestic crown bought him credit, but not immunity.
This was supposed to be the campaign where Liverpool reasserted themselves among Europe’s elite. Instead, they’re out, beaten home and away, their flaws exposed under the brightest lights. The questions now aren’t just about one team selection or one misfiring striker. They’re about the entire direction of the project.
At 47, Slot finds his long-term future at Liverpool under serious scrutiny. When big-money signings misfire and big nights go flat, patience in elite football evaporates quickly.
Season on the line
The Champions League door has slammed shut for this season. Slot’s job now is to make sure it reopens as quickly as possible.
Liverpool sit fifth in the Premier League. Under the new format, that position currently carries a Champions League place, and their four-point cushion over sixth-placed Chelsea is the thin barrier between this disappointment and something far more damaging.
The margin for error? Tiny.
Six games remain, and the schedule offers no comfort. Trips to Everton and Manchester United bring all the usual venom and volatility of derby and rivalry fixtures, with points and pride on the line. A visit to fourth-placed Aston Villa looms, another direct battle with a side chasing the same prize.
Anfield, usually a sanctuary, won’t be gentle either. Chelsea are coming, hunting that fifth spot. So are Brentford, seventh and still clinging to their own faint Champions League hopes.
Every fixture carries weight. Every selection will be scrutinised.
Slot backed Isak on the biggest night of the season and watched the gamble fail. With Liverpool’s future in Europe hanging on the next six league games, how many more risks can he afford to take?
