LONDON STADIUM — What do you buy for the man who has everything? It’s a post-Christmas quandary for the Liverpool hierarchy, because at present it is hard to find much to write of a January wish list for Arne Slot.
They will start the month at least seven points, eight if Chelsea fail to win on Monday, clear of the chasing pack in the Premier League and the title is decidedly theirs to lose.
There will be concerns about Joe Gomez, a first-half departure in the 5-0 win over West Ham with an apparent hamstring problem, but the injured Ibrahima Konate is due to start training with the first team next week.
In the meantime the talented Jarell Quansah will deputise, the highly-rated 21-year-old who already has a score of appearances for the first team.
Slot is unlikely to be interested in a panic-bought defender in the current circumstances.
Plans may well be in place to secure a new centre-half, given Virgil van Dijk is one of three big names whose contracts for next season are still under negotiation.
It is expected that the Dutchman will eventually sign a new deal – he could have done some of the negotiation during the second half at the London Stadium, so untroubled was he – but it would be churlish of Liverpool not to be prepared.
You could forgive the Reds for being lulled into a sense of security though, much as they were during the second half against the Hammers, when the resistance offered was so minimal that Mo Salah spurned at least two gilt-edged chances in distinctly lackadaisical fashion.
A more schoolmasterly manager might have hauled him off to make an example of him, but it was inevitable he would create or score more.
It would have been a very brave one to do so too, given Salah’s openness to leaving on a free transfer in the summer: he could easily leave the club having scored 35 goals in the Premier League this season.
His 20th in all competitions, Liverpool’s third on Sunday, means he has now bagged at least that number in eight consecutive seasons for the Reds, a testament to the 32-year-old’s ability and longevity.
Re-signing Salah and Van Dijk should be the main focus for Liverpool over the next month, when interest in them from clubs hoping to upset the Premier League’s most stable apple cart will intensify.
From 1 January, they and Trent Alexander-Arnold will be able to talk to clubs – in the full-back’s case, Real Madrid – but in that third case, Liverpool believe they have a ready-made replacement in Conor Bradley.
Rumours of course will circulate and managers like Slot will refuse to confirm or deny them, which only adds fuel to the fire, but the reality is that this Liverpool side are not far from perfect: ask any team who have failed to beat them this season.
And all this from a side who are supposed to be in transition after nearly nine years under Jurgen Klopp. Surely Slot would need time and patience to remould this team into his own?
But it has been evolution rather than revolution. Slot has not “put his stamp on the squad” but rather got the best out of existing players like Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch, whose engine room time and again turned West Ham over in midfield to expose them on the break.
As Alisson pointed out this week, it is broadly the same players but “a little bit of a different style now”. It’s a sensible approach, not to change too much too quickly. You only have to look down the road to Manchester to see how that tends to go.
So if Liverpool’s owners can buy Slot anything, it will be the long-term stability of two new contracts and an otherwise quiet January. That will keep the man who has everything more than happy.
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