Micah Richards urges Arne Slot to address 'alarming' Liverpool issue

Arne Slot must prioritize securing the futures of key Liverpool trio Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Virgil van Dijk to ensure the team's long-term success.

That’s according to Micah Richards, who described it as Slot’s ‘biggest job’ at Anfield.

The three players, who were pivotal under Jurgen Klopp, are now in the final year of their contract, with reports suggesting that their futures lay elsewhere.

Salah, 32, and Van Dijk, 33, have been tipped to move to the Saudi Pro League, the former especially after Liverpool turned down Al-Ittihad’s £150million bid for the Egyptian King last summer.

Alexander-Arnold meanwhile has been linked with a stunning transfer to Real Madrid having spent his entire career so far with his boyhood club.

The prospect of losing the trio is real and Richards says it should be a ‘big concern’ for manager Slot who took the reins at Anfield over the summer.

‘Trent Alexander-Arnold top player, Van Dijk, Mo Salah they’ve only got one year left on their deal,’ the Manchester City icon said on The Rest is Football podcast.

‘That would be concerning for me. We can talk about tactics all we want and I know he [Slot] said in an interview that keeping the players for this season is like a signing within itself.

‘But I just think that’s the biggest job he’s got to do.’

Much will depend on how the trio fare under Slot but for the moment it seems that they are all in his plans as they started his first game in charge last Saturday – a 2-0 win at Ipswich Town where Salah scored the second goal.

Defenders Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold are of course club captain and vice-captain, with the Reds set to take on Brentford at home on Sunday.

Discussing further how players adjust to a new boss and their different managerial styles, Richards added: ‘Some players like an arm around them, some players love that tough love.

‘You do think, “I hope he likes me”, and then you’re looking at the manager, seeing what his first training session is like. Are you buying into what he’s saying? Is he a fraud or is he coming for some real good ideas?

‘That’s the thing you’re thinking as a player straight away and I’m not talking about Arne Slot, I’m talking about managers in general.’

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