Arne Slot's Gamble with Isak Backfires in Champions League Exit
Arne Slot walked into Anfield on Tuesday night needing a miracle. He walked out with his judgment – and perhaps his long-term future at Liverpool – under open attack.
At the heart of the storm: his decision to start Alexander Isak.
Hamann leads criticism of Isak gamble
Isak had not started a match for three months. A brief cameo in the first leg in Paris was his only action since late December. Yet against what many regard as the best team in Europe, Slot handed the €145 million striker the biggest assignment of Liverpool’s season.
Dietmar Hamann could barely believe it.
“If a player hasn’t featured for three months then faces the best team in Europe, he should be on the bench,” the former Liverpool midfielder told Sky, openly questioning the logic behind the call. Hamann was equally 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 tried to explain it differently. Start Isak, avoid the risk of throwing on a half-fit striker for what could become an extra 30 minutes of football. Manage his minutes from the front, not the back.
“Playing 45 minutes and then assessing at half-time whether he could add five or ten more was an option,” the coach said.
He stuck to that plan. Isak lasted only the first half.
Slot stands by his man
For Slot, this was not a wild punt on reputation. He insisted it was a calculated decision, based on what he had seen on the training ground.
The Dutchman pointed out that Isak “came close to scoring twice”. On one of those chances, he did beat the defence, but the flag went up before PSG goalkeeper Matvey Safonov denied him.
“He was ready. If I’d felt he wasn’t ready, he wouldn’t have played,” Slot stressed.
The numbers tell a harsher story. Since arriving from Newcastle United for €145 million last summer, the 26-year-old has managed only three goals in 19 appearances. On this night, with Liverpool chasing a Champions League semi-final, he failed to alter that narrative and was withdrawn at the break for Cody Gakpo.
“Nowhere near fit”
The contrast was immediate, at least in the eyes of another ex-Red.
Cody Gakpo “did more in the first five minutes than Isak did in the whole first half,” former Liverpool full-back Stephen Warnock told the BBC, tearing into both the selection and the player’s condition.
Warnock did not hold back. Isak, he said, was “nowhere near fit” and “non-existent” in the Anfield showdown.
“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?” the 44-year-old asked, summing up the sense of disbelief among many watching.
Missed moment, ruthless response
Liverpool’s task was already steep after a 2–0 defeat in the first leg in Paris. Anfield demanded a response, and for half an hour the tie still hung in the balance.
Then came the moment that could have changed everything.
From close range, Virgil van Dijk found himself with a golden chance to ignite the comeback. Beat the keeper, shift the mood, drag PSG into a fight. Instead, Marquinhos slid back to his own goal and produced a superb clearance on the line, a captain’s intervention that silenced the roar before it could grow.
The punishment was brutal. Paris did not just protect their advantage; they extended it. Ousmane Dembélé struck twice, and a 2–0 away win mirrored the scoreline from the Parc des Princes. Across 180 minutes, Liverpool never laid a glove on them where it really mattered.
Pressure mounts on Slot
For Slot, the fallout is severe. Winning the English league title last season had not fully quietened doubts about Liverpool’s trajectory under his watch. This Champions League exit, with selection calls under heavy scrutiny, sharpens every question.
The 47-year-old’s long-term future at Anfield is now under serious discussion. When big nights go wrong, it is not just the players who are judged.
What comes next is unforgiving. With Europe’s premier competition gone, Slot’s immediate task is clear: drag Liverpool back into the Champions League places.
They sit fifth. Normally, that would spell disaster, but the Premier League’s new fifth Champions League berth offers a lifeline. Even that safety net looks thin. Liverpool hold only a four-point cushion over sixth-placed Chelsea, the new cut-off for elite European qualification, with six games left.
Run-in with no margin for error
The schedule offers no comfort.
Trips to Everton and Manchester United, with all the venom and volatility those fixtures bring. A visit to fourth-placed Aston Villa, one of the season’s most relentless sides. At Anfield, Chelsea come hunting that fifth spot, while seventh-placed Brentford still cling to their own slim Champions League hopes.
Every match is loaded. Every selection will be scrutinised.
Slot backed Isak in the biggest game of Liverpool’s season and watched the gamble fail. With the run-in looming and the margins shrinking, how many more risks can he afford?
