Arne Slot explains Liverpool challenge as summer transfer plan becomes clear - 'now we have an idea'

Arne Slot

Arne Slot insists he and sporting director Richard Hughes are assessing every position at Liverpool ahead of the summer transfer window.

the Reds boss reiterated a lot of the recruitment work will depend on the futures of Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah

An injury to Diogo Jota against Chelsea on October 20 meant the Portugal international went four months without a Premier League start

the No.20 has featured for just 199 of the last 1530 Premier League minutes due to fitness concerns.

Darwin Nunez has failed to nail down a spot as Slot's first-choice striker in Jota's absence with Luis Diaz often preferred to operate as a makeshift centre-forward in recent months

Nunez was guilty of missing a huge opportunity in Wednesday night's 2-2 draw at Aston Villa when he side-footed over the bar in front of an empty net

Slot said on Thursday he was unhappy with how Nunez reacted to that setback and questioned his work-rate levels

the head coach stopped short of confirming he was in the market for a new striker this summer, the Liverpool boss conceded all options are being explored.

Slot

"We are looking at every single position and we are looking at the team,"

"And I think we've said this many times last season, or last summer, we didn't do a lot [in the summer window] because we - Richard, me and all the other people involved - just wanted to know how these players were working with me, the different manager.

"Now we have a very good idea about that, and I think it's clear to you that I'm not going to tell you which positions we prefer.

“But it is clear that we've assessed the squad, we've assessed what we think where we can improve, and that's where we try to go for in the summer."

Much of what is possible, however, will centre around the respective contract situations of Van Dijk, Salah and Alexander-Arnold

Slot added:

“But if you're OK with it, it's quite an important two or three months to go. And we have some contract situations to take care of!

"So there's a lot of work to do in the background, but my main focus is on the current squad."

Asked if he had picked the brains of Jurgen Klopp to gain insight into dealing with Manchester City at the Etihad,

Slot added: "No, we haven't spoken about that. He's only mostly given a lot of compliments heafter a game. So no, we haven't spoken about that.

"I can talk to Jurgen, I've experienced it. Only one time when Liverpool won [the Premier League], it was 25 points [clear], but that's not normal in a football season, except for France, because in France it's always like this with Paris Saint-Germain.

“But almost every other league, it's tight till the end."