Mo Salah is one of three Liverpool players out of contract come the end of the season

Liverpool boss Arne Slot insists he is not thinking beyond the season and whether star winger Mohamed Salah will remain at the club beyond the current campaign. The Reds beat Brentford 2-0 on Saturday afternoon in a dramatic encounter that saw the visitors score twice in stoppage time through Darwin Nunez.

As the Reds chase the Premier League title, the futures of Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk continue to remain a talking point. All three players are out of contract this summer and as things stand they are free to speak to foreign clubs about a free transfer at the end of the season.

Salah has been linked with a move to Saudi Arabia while Van Dijk is reportedly close to a new deal per reports from the Netherlands earlier this month. Real Madrid have made their interest in Alexander-Arnold public with a failed bid to sign the right back this month.

Slot discusses ‘short-term’ future

Asked by Rio Ferdinand for TNT Sports what he would do if Salah was not here for the long term and how he would go about replacing him, Slot replied: "For me, it's most about the short-term and making sure these players keep doing what they do, offensively and defensively, and trying to get him indeed to that position [scoring more goals]. But therefore, he has to stay fit as well.”

Speaking at the start of this month, Salah said there had been no progress over a new deal. He said: "So far, yes. It's the last six months. There is no progress there. We are far away from any progress. So, we just need to wait and see."

Liverpool favourite and former player Robbie Fowler proposed a new theory over the weekend that two of the three players out of contract have signed new deals but one player has yet to agree terms - with the club not wanting to make an announcement with just two of their squad committed.

Trent ‘best in the world’

As Slot discussed his side and tactics ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League clash with Lille, he hailed Alexander-Arnold as the best player in the world when running down the line and providing crosses.

Telling Ferdinand why he liked to play Alexander-Arnold on the right rather than in a central role, he said: “Trent is good in this position, but I rate them higher. And Trent is the best player in the world when he's down the line. His crosses are incredible. So I have to make sure he's either here on the inside when he receives the ball from where we can cross it in, or he's close enough to goal to have a shot on target, or he crosses in here from the side. So he's good centrally, we saw this with the England team. He was okay to good, but he's special for me on the side.

“I think you want to have him also for the last pass. And if he's in this six role, in the double pivot role, I think that's more for players to bring our special players that can change the game on the ball. And I want to have Trent in those positions.”