After an opening weekend victory over Ipswich Town, Liverpool head coach Arne Slot was in a confident mood ahead of Sunday’s fixture against Brentford.
In this morning’s pre-match press conference, Slot revealed that he was not nervous ahead of his competitive Anfield debut and that he hoped that the crowd would make ‘twice the noise’ he experienced at Portman Road.
The 45-year-old Dutchman was evasive on the subject of incoming transfers, as he has been since his introduction to the presspack in early July. Despite the lack of incomings, the new boss declared he was ‘Not worried, because I trust the team.’
There has also been no movement on contract announcements for star players Mo Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Fears Salah may be eyeing an Anfield exit were raised earlier this week following a piece by Ian Doyle. Journalists including the Liverpool Echo’s LFC correspondent Paul Gorst then sought to clarify the comments.
On the latest episode of our Journo Insight Show, we asked Paul for his thoughts on the major contract renewals.
Paul said:
“It was just buried in the piece that if there’s no movement, as things stand, he’s going to leave on a free, which is what will happen when his contract runs out.
“We asked Mo to stop on Saturday at Portman Road and typically he gave us the smile and brush us off, as he tends to do.
“He’s never going to stop, but he knows that if he does, the contract situation is going to be top of the conversation.
“It was the same with Trent actually, we asked him to stop, and he started laughing and said, ‘Oh, what would you possibly want to speak to me about?!’
” [Van Dijk] said there’s been no movement, so still nothing on the table after three months of Richard Hughes being in the job.
“I know for a fact that Trent doesn’t want it openly discussed… Liverpool keep their in-house details to themselves on these sorts of things for good reason. So, I’m not massively worried with that one, I do think that it might get sorted out.
“There will be interest from Real Madrid in Trent, I’m certain of that, particularly after getting Kylian Mbappe on a free agent.
“With Michael Edwards being famously data-driven, that takes the emotion out of the process. So maybe there’s a school of thought where they’re thinking, ‘Well, we’ll see how Virgil gets on this season. He’s just turned 33 – he might drop off a cliff.’
“I think with Trent, there are fewer concerns over a performance drop-off. He’s only 25, his best years are still theoretically ahead of him. He’s now a real leader in the squad, an unbelievably talented player, homegrown. Just look to get it done if you can.”
REDMEN REACTS
With the summer transfer window closing in a week’s time, Richard Hughes may be prioritising a final push for signings over contract talks for three of Liverpool’s stars. Nervousness is growing amongst the fan base over a lack of action on both fronts. FSG’s contract model could be perceived as hostile towards players approaching their mid-30s, with ex-boss Jürgen Klopp throwing his weight behind an expensive extension for Jordan Henderson not so long ago, against the wishes of his backroom team.
The Moneyball-descended idea of replacing match-winning contributions ‘in the aggregate’ looks tricky when it comes to Salah and Van Dijk, however. Replacing Mo’s guaranteed 20+ league goals per season will likely cost an arm and a leg, so if the player is still fit and firing – which he appears to be – then an extension seems the obvious choice. The same applies to Van Dijk. Thiago Silva was putting in man-of-the-match performances well into his late 30s, so it is feasible that the captain could follow suit. As for Trent Alexander-Arnold, there is very little to say other than ‘GET IT DONE!’
