Arne Slot has made a habit of instantly deflecting any press conference questions in relation to the contractual situations of Mo Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
However, when he was asked about the trio after Liverpool’s 4-0 thrashing of Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night, he displayed greater transparency than usual in stating how crucial all three of them continue to be for his side.
They’ll all be out of contract next summer as things stand, leading to an abundance of speculation as to their respective futures, but the head coach appeared to send a pointed message to Richard Hughes and FSG following his team’s latest win.
When Slot spoke to Amazon Prime Video Sport after the match, it was put to him that Salah, Trent and Van Dijk remain crucial to Liverpool and that the head coach will ‘want to keep hold of’ all three beyond the current campaign.
The 46-year-old went on to praise each of those players’ contributions individually and concluded by saying: “It’s good to have them in a good place. Maybe we have to wait even longer if they keep producing these games! They’re really important for Liverpool and let’s see…”
By publicly stating that Salah, Trent and Van Dijk are all ‘really important for Liverpool’, we wonder if Slot was taking his opportunity to make a point to the Anfield hierarchy about their respective contract situations.
To lose even one of that trio would be hard to take. To lose all three in the next eight months would be a catastrophic indictment of mismanagement from the powerbrokers at LFC.
The Egyptian is now on nine goals and assists each for the season after he set up a couple of goals last night, a phenomenal return from 16 games and proof positive that he remains a massive player for the Reds.
At the other end of the pitch, Van Dijk and Trent both played their part in ensuring a welcome clean sheet for Liverpool, who’d been breached five times across their previous three games.
It’s evident from their respective performances that the off-field conjecture around Salah, Trent and Van Dijk isn’t affecting their form on the pitch, and we can only hope that FSG heed Slot’s pointed message about the trio being ‘really important’ to the team’s chances of tangible success.
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