Arne Slot reveals Liverpool's three options to solve Trent Alexander-Arnold issue

Liverpool boss Arne Slot has admitted that convincing Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk to sign new contracts has eased the pain of losing . Both Salah and Van Dijk committed themselves to two-year deals last month - only for born-and-bred Scouser Alexander-Arnold to tell the newly-crowned champions that he wants to seek a new challenge when his current agreement expires at the end of June.

Alexander-Arnold is heading for - and the Spanish giants are hoping to convince Anfield bosses to allow the England defender to make an early exit so he is free to play in the Club World Cup. Slot said: “If I had to choose between replacing one of the three or all three, I would have definitely picked the first option.

“Of course, I was hoping all three of them would stay, so it’s still a bit of a disappointment that one of them decided to leave this club. But I’m very, very happy that Mo and Virgil extended their contracts - and that should not be forgotten.”

Losing Alexander-Arnold for nothing is a huge blow for the club when the 26-year-old would be worth in excess of £70million in the transfer market. Reports in Spain have claimed that were ready to pay the right-back more money than what is on offer at the Bernabeu and that Alexander-Arnold's decision was about ambition rather than cash.

Slot will hand Conor Bradley a start against at Anfield - but that means Alexander-Arnold could face the full wrath of the Kop if he is brought on as a substitute. The Reds are likely to bring in a new right-back during the summer - despite their Dutch manager’s defiant message that Alexander-Arnold’s departure will give him even more energy as he looks to replace one of his most creative players.

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Slot said: “If I could make the choice, I would prefer Trent to stay. But it also gives a bit of new energy. I'm not going to change everything, but it's different.

“Trent playing or Conor playing, or Joe Gomez playing, or Curtis Jones playing - so it does bring up the thing I like most about this job I'm doing. I like finding answers for the qualities we have now in our team, because Conor brings in different qualities than Trent brings in.

“It also gives me a bit of energy. It always gives you energy if new players come in as well, or if you've just joined a new club. Last year all of them were new for me. Trent leaving doesn't always have to lead to something negative, let's put it that way.”

Slot forged a reputation for coming up with solutions when he lost a raft of important players during his time in charge of Feyenoord. He inherited a squad in 2021 that had been stripped of nine regular starters, including captain Steven Berghuis, but still reached the Europa Conference Final.

Then, despite seeing Luis Sinisterra, Tyrell Malacia and Marcos Senesi depart to the Premier League, he guided the Rotterdam club to the Eredivisie title. In his final season at Feyenoord he lost skipper Orkun Kokcu.

Slot’s hands were tied further when the Dutch club only allowed him to reinvest a fraction of the cash generated in sales on new recruits. That isn’t an issue he will face when Liverpool go into the market armed with piles of Premier League and prize money.

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