Arne Slot reveals how he wants his Liverpool players to develop from Jurgen Klopp’s ‘heavy metal’ brand of football – as he speaks out on Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah contract speculation

Arne Slot has made an excellent start as Liverpool’s new manager, impressing with his team’s performance on the opening weekend of the Premier League campaign after their 2-0 win over newcomers Ipswich at Portman Road.

Despite this, questions have been raised over the lack of new players at Anfield, while uncertainty has grown over the futures of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk.

Slot also has big shoes to fill, as he succeeds Jurgen Klopp in the Anfield hotseat. So far, however, he has impressed, with a slightly different style of play to the ‘heavy metal’ football we are used to from the Reds.

Liverpool showed on the opening weekend that they play a more possession-based game. Jamie Carragher made some interesting observations on Monday Night Football, about how narrow Liverpool’s defence played, pointing out how Andy Robertson cut inside behind Van Dijk to collect the ball.

Slot will get his first taste of the Premier League at Anfield on Sunday as the Reds welcome Brentford to Merseyside and has revealed he wants his players to better assess the ‘risks and rewards’ of situations than they did under Klopp.

But Slot admitted there were some similarities between his philosophy and Klopp’s (pictured)

This comes as uncertainty remains over the future of Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is in the final year of his Liverpool contract.

‘Liverpool used every moment they could to play the ball in behind [before]’, the Dutchman told Carragher during an interview with Sky Sport.

‘That meant that the game was sometimes a bit open, especially in Jurgen’s last period. Sometimes I tell the players that they have to assess risk and reward better.’

‘So if you can get some balls in front of the keeper, please try to do that. If you can’t, it’s also a good idea to keep the ball, but I’m sure if Jurgen was in the room now, he would say that he would also like to keep the ball sometimes. In general, I see that some players still try to play the difficult ball, which doesn’t give the reward for the risk they take.’

Although things are starting to change at Liverpool in the post-Klopp era, Slot insists there are many similarities in the philosophies of both managers and believes that players are increasingly embracing his ethos as a result.

A big task on his and technical director Richard Hughes’ to-do list is finding a solution to the uncertainty surrounding the contract situations of Van Dijk, Salah and Alexander-Arnold.

Slot will play his first Premier League match as Liverpool manager at Anfield on Sunday

Mohamed Salah’s contract also expires at the end of this year, with clubs from Saudi Arabia showing interest

Virgil van Dijk’s contract at Liverpool also expires next summer, but Slot was keen to stress that all players are needed to continue performing

All three players are in the final year of their contracts with the club and the lack of clarity over whether they will agree new deals has caused concern among some fans.

Alexander-Arnold has been linked with a move to Real Madrid in recent months, with him being spotted holidaying in the United States with England team-mate Jude Bellingham.

His departure in particular could be a major blow for the Reds, given his age of 25, the talent he possesses and the fact that he is from the city.

However, Slot stated that all three players were in control of their own destiny.

While he could not provide insight into the internal goings-on surrounding the contract extension negotiations, he urged all three players to continue to perform at their best.

But Slot added that all three players had their fate in their own hands, adding that his focus was on today’s match against Brentford.

Liverpool started the 2024-25 season well with a 2-0 win against Ipswich

‘The most important thing for all of them, whether you’re out of contract or not, is to [deliver] the best possible performance and that is where I must and will help them with my staff, to get the best out of them. So far it has only been positive,’ Slot told Sky Sports.

‘Mo came back very strong physically, Virgil as well, Trent did the same and they had a good performance against Ipswich, which was only the first game. My focus is on Brentford and not on contract extensions.’