Liverpool’s title pursuit marred by player contract concerns

Liverpool are just weeks away from Premier League glory barring a meltdown but there is a palpable sense of anti-climax and uncertainty over the future after a chastening week for Arne Slot’s men.

On Sunday the anaemic Reds lost the League Cup final to a hungry Newcastle team, just five days after Paris Saint-Germain ended their Champions League campaign.

Liverpool were out-thought and out-fought at Wembley by the Magpies, who celebrated their first domestic trophy in 70 years in front of their passionate fans.

Slot was sanguine after the defeat, admitting Eddie Howe’s men deserved their triumph.

“This is part of playing football, especially if one of them is when you face the best team in Europe at the moment and the other one is facing Newcastle, which is a very strong team in England,” he said.

The Dutchman sought to switch the focus back to the Premier League, highlighting Liverpool’s yawning 12-point lead with just nine games to go.

Sixteen more points would guarantee Liverpool the title even if second-placed Arsenal win every game — the Gunners’ visit to Anfield in May is likely to be academic.

It is almost inconceivable that Liverpool will not go on to equal Manchester United’s record of 20 English top-flight titles and captain Virgil van Dijk said they do not need extra incentives.

“We have nine games to go and I don’t think there’s any motivation needed,” said the defender. “What is needed is we have to realise there is hard work and still a job to do.

“If you win five games — obviously that’s a very difficult job — you’re going to be champions of England.”

At the start of the season Liverpool fans would have been delighted to win just the Premier League in the first campaign after the departure of talismanic manager Jurgen Klopp.

But their phenomenal form in the league phase of the Champions League fuelled hopes that their season could be truly historic, propelled by the goals of the irrepressible Mohamed Salah.

Instead, the ruthlessness they showed earlier in the campaign has disappeared, at least temporarily.

In their past 10 matches in all competitions, Liverpool have won five, drawn two and lost three, even though one of those was on penalties against Paris Saint-Germain.

Even Salah’s goals have dried up — he has failed to find the net in four of his past five matches — and was largely anonymous at Wembley.

The Egyptian is one of three star players who are out of contract at the end of the season, along with Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

– Contract uncertainty –

Slot has been dogged all season by questions over the future of the players, mostly laughing off attempts by reporters to find novel ways of asking questions over their futures.

But their status is still unresolved just two months before the end of the domestic season.

Van Dijk admitted last week he had “no idea” if he would remain at Anfield after this season.

Salah has been linked with a lucrative move to Saudi Arabia while speculation persists that England international Alexander-Arnold will be lured to Real Madrid.

Even if Liverpool manage to keep one or more of the trio, the sense is that the team are nearing the end of a cycle rather than at the beginning of one.

Van Dijk is 33 while Salah and goalkeeper Alisson Becker are 32. Stalwart defender Andy Robertson is just a year younger.

Those players helped formed the backbone of Klopp’s teams, who relentlessly hounded Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Manchester City, winning the Premier League and the Champions League under the German.

Former Feyenoord coach Slot had enormous shoes to fill when he arrived last year to replace Klopp but did not suffer his second defeat until January.

Barring a historic collapse, Liverpool will win just their second English top-flight title since 1990 in the coming weeks.

Slot will relish the moment but will also know that the really hard work lies ahead.

AFP