A dream start for Liverpool – but futures of trio still crucial
Mohamed Salah’s winner against Brighton, which took Liverpool top of the Premier League table, was a timely reminder of what the Reds could lose if contract talks do not go well.
Forward Salah, and defenders Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk, have been three of the rocks of Liverpool’s recent era of success – and yet in nine weeks they could all sign deals elsewhere to leave the club for free.
The trio are all out of contract at the end of the season and it comes the season after legendary manager Jurgen Klopp left the club.
Former Man City defender Micah Richards told BBC Match of the Day: “They have got to sign Mo Salah up, it is imperative they give him a two-year deal.
“He doesn’t have to play well to score goals and have big moments. That is a the difference between a very good player and a top player.”
“We are talking about the three most influential players, alongside the goalkeeper [Alisson],” said former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher.
“They are all legendary figures at that club and it’s probably down to them this season why it has gone so well.”
It has gone very well indeed. Liverpool have won an impressive 13 out of 15 games since Arne Slot succeeded Klopp in the summer, including on Saturday where they responded to a first half which Brighton had dominated.
“They came out in the second half with a completely different attitude,” said BBC pundit Chris Sutton. “That was Klopp-like intensity from Slot’s team in the second half and that could be a massive win for Liverpool.”
With 220 goals in 364 games, Egyptian Salah is the fifth on Liverpool’s leading goalscorer list, just eight behind Billy Liddell.
His latest was a peach as he curled an effort into the far corner from the right. It was the 48th time he had scored a winning goal in the Premier League.
“A Mo Salah special,” was how Slot described it. “It’s not the first and not the last time he will score from that position.”
Van Dijk set up fellow Netherlands international Cody Gakpo’s equaliser, which came after Ferdi Kadioglu had given Brighton the lead.
How important are the trio to Liverpool?
Since Van Dijk’s £75m move from Southampton in January 2018 various injuries mean the trio have played together in just 59% of Liverpool’s matches, but their influence is obvious with 154 victories out of those 221 games.
They have become the heart of one of the great Liverpool teams, reaching the Champions League final three times, winning one, lifting their only Premier League title – and winning an FA Cup and two League Cups.
The win percentage is 70% when they all play together and drops to 59% when they do not.
There have only been 14 matches (out of 376) where none of them have played, with only two of those in the league.
Salah was Liverpool’s most used player under Klopp, with Alexander-Arnold second and Van Dijk, now the club’s captain, fifth.
Salah has been a revelation since joining Liverpool, despite being a winger who had never scored 20 goals in a season before.
For Premier League goals and assists combined, only seven players have been involved in more than his 238 since the Premier League’s 1992 formation.
Only Salah and Wayne Rooney have both scored and assisted 10 or more goals in five different Premier League seasons – a record he will hope to have on his own later this campaign, given he already has six goals and five assists.
Since Alexander-Arnold’s Premier League debut in December 2016, he has set up 59 league goals – the fourth highest – and created the third most chances.
Only James Ward-Prowse and James Maddison have scored more than his six free-kicks in that time.
Meanwhile, only eight defenders have scored more Premier League goals than Van Dijk – and Liverpool’s win percentage drops from 70% to 52% when he does not play.
He has the seventh highest win percentage in Premier League history.
Where could they go? Are Liverpool worried about losing the players?
Real Madrid have been linked with England’s Alexander-Arnold, who spoke recently about how important winning a Ballon d’Or would be.
Salah has been linked with a move to a Saudi Arabian club since their state-funded transfer spree started last year.
The Reds rejected a £150m bid for him in the summer of 2023 – a big decision to make two years before the end of his deal.
It is a slightly unusual position with contract doubts over three guaranteed starters – especially for a club as big as Liverpool.
But Slot did not seem too concerned about the situation in Friday’s pre-match news conference.
“For me the contract situation could become a problem if the players don’t perform as well as they do at the moment,” Slot said.
“At the moment all three of them are in a good place, all of them perform really, really, really well.
“There are ongoing discussions, as Virgil said, with the people he has to talk with, and that’s not me. I talk to him about other things.
“Let’s wait and see but all what he said is completely right in that he doesn’t exactly know what the future will be as long as he doesn’t sign the contract yet.”
Liverpool fans that BBC Sport spoke to before the game did not seem too concerned, with many confident the three would stay, although there was a fear that Salah could leave for Saudi Arabia.
Former Liverpool defender Carragher, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Friday Football Social, thinks Van Dijk, 33, and Salah, 32, are more likely to stay than academy product Alexander-Arnold, 26.
“I’m pretty confident that the two older lads will sign. They are probably at the stage of their careers where it is difficult to move to a better club than Liverpool,” he said.
“I think Salah will be desperate to break as many records as he can at Liverpool.
“I think the argument will be when you are up for that last contract and it’s not really about money but length of the contracts as you get older.
“Trent is in a different situation and that’s probably the one people are most worried with with Real Madrid potentially interested. Dani Carvajal has just done his ACL so they are probably desperate for a right-back for the next 18 months.”
