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Arne Slot is planning to turn Trent Alexander-Arnold’s Anfield departure into a positive for Liverpool, the head coach has said. The right-back will leave Merseyside this summer for Real Madrid on a free transfer, meaning the Dutchman will need to find a way of replacing him.
Conor Bradley is set to start Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Arsenal at Anfield as preparations continue for next season with the title secured. Slot might have to look outside the club for someone to challenge the Northern Ireland international for the right-back berth.
“If I could make the choice, I would prefer Trent to stay,” Slot said. “I’m not going to change everything, but it’s different Trent playing than Conor playing, or Joe Gomez playing, or Curtis Jones playing, so it does bring up the thing I like: finding answers for the qualities we have now in our team, because Conor brings in different qualities than Trent.
“It also gives you energy if new players come in as well, or if you just joined a new club, so last season all of them were new for me. It doesn’t always have to lead to something negative.”
Of the three players who were out of contract, it is a relief that Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk will stay at Liverpool. “I was hoping for all three of them to stay,” Slot said. “It’s still a bit of a disappointment that one of those three decided to leave. But I’m very, very, very happy about Virgil and Mo extending their contract. I think that reached the headlines and everybody spoke about it a lot already, but that should not be forgotten.”
There was potential for Sunday’s fixture to play a significant role in the title race but second-placed Arsenal have been unable to keep up with Liverpool. Slot said of his counterpart Mikel Arteta: “He’s working there for five years, he should get a lot of credit for the way his team plays because they can play almost every style.
“They can play off set pieces, they can defend in the low blocks and be the dominant team, they can play a high press, they can build up from the back, they play the long ball. Every part of the game, they are good. It’s quite difficult to analyse them, because you don’t know what you can expect on Sunday.”
