Arne Slot provides 'same boring answer' to question every Liverpool fan wants to ask

Arne Slot served up the ‘same boring answer’ when quizzed on the futures of Liverpool trio Virgil Van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah on Friday.

Slot has shone since taking over from legendary Reds boss Jurgen Klopp, with the Dutchman beginning to make the Liverpool side he inherited look and feel like his own.

Liverpool have won all but one of their opening nine matches across all competitions this season and sit top of the table heading into the seventh round of Premier League fixtures.

Despite the positive start, the futures of Van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold and Salah have clouded over Slot’s time as Liverpool manager so far.

The trio are all currently out of contract at the end of the campaign, with Slot once again asked if there had been any progress on striking up a new deal.

On the contract situations, Slot replied: “Contracts? I was hoping you didn’t use that word. It’s the same boring answer as always and I could really understand if you ask me this every two weeks but every other day!

“People think I am boring with the same answer Try asking after the international break!”

It is not exactly the answer that Liverpool supporters would’ve wanted to hear.

As for the here and now, one player the Reds faithful will be wanting to see a little bit more from is Darwin Nunez.

The club-record signing again frustrated during the mid-week victory over Bologna, with Slot urging those of a Liverpool persuasion to stick by him this season.

Commenting on the Uruguayan, Slot said: “I think it’s a challenge we as a staff have to find different ways to position Darwin to Diogo [Jota] as they are different players.

“It’s what I have to do as a manager. He didn’t score vs Bologna because he was offside but we couldn’t get him in the positions that we want to be.

“Even Diogo didn’t have [many chances]. He’s scored twice against West Ham at 10, so maybe it is something to look at; to bring our striker in different positions to score.”

He could get that chance this weekend when the table-toppers make the journey south for Saturday’s early kick-off against Crystal Palace.

But in contrast to Slot’s predecessor, when asked about what impact the 12.30pm kick-offs have on the players, Slot served up a coy response: “I think the league I come from, they are more aware and try to help teams in Europe but to be fair to English FA our schedule is tight so it is difficult.

“It has a lot to do with TV stations, feels like I do an interview every day. I think they can pick a team for 12:30pm, so they choose Liverpool.”

He added: “Every away game is difficult. Ten of 18 away games didn’t lead to a win [last week]. People talk about 12:30pm, we talk about difficult away games. If 12:30pm was a difficult time to perform then I am a stupid manager because I train every day at midday!”