Slott: This is the state of the team, and we have a big challenge ahead of us

Liverpool coach Arne Slot appeared in a press conference, to talk about Sunday's confrontation against Chelsea, in the eighth round of the English Premier League.

The coach said about renewing the players' contracts. The likes of Salah, Van Dijk and Arnold: “What happened is that they were with their national teams. Arnold scored from a wonderful free kick as you have probably seen. Same question, same answer. There will always be conversations about our players and it is good to ask about that, it means they are performing.” Well because if they played badly, you wouldn't ask. I can't tell you anything about that at this moment."

He added about the team's situation: "We have some problems. Of the players returning from the national teams we can only judge that today is perfect because today is the first time they are all there and the first time they are all training together again so let's see after the session where Alistair and Kostas Tsimikas will be Let's see."

He added: "Alison will not be with us in the coming weeks. This is a blow for him and for us. He has performed really well this season and he has performed well for this." Club for many years. Now the good thing is that Caoimhin Kelleher has performed well for us in previous years and this shows that we have a good alternative.”

On the fixture list: “If you judge your team based on Only one week, it's not fair. You have to judge as a team after this period of matches, not three, six, seven or eight matches, then we know better how to act and how to perform. If we play difficult matches in the Champions League and difficult matches in the Premier League, that is normal in everyone's season and we know how difficult it is. We saw it ourselves, two years ago when we played the Champions League, and we saw it last season with Manchester United and the only ones who have shown they can perform in the Champions League and in the league are Manchester City and Arsenal, in the last two seasons. Now it's up to us."

He continued on whether Chelsea were the team's first challenge this season: "If you look at the league table, you will find that it is, and I think Manchester United It was a very good team, and it's a big club in England that spent a lot of money to improve the team again, and it's the same for Chelsea this season, Chelsea are doing really well, so if you look at the league table, they might be our strongest rivals, but it's not It's always about the league table sometimes, it's about the performance on match day, it's about the game plan. We had some difficulties with Wolverhampton as well, it's a challenge for sure.”

On Connor Bradley: “I think he will have a bright future because he is a very good player and very good players are what we need.” Here in Liverpool. He performed very well, especially last season, when he had to replace Trent and now Trent has played a lot but he is a very good player. Despite the tough competition he faces from Trent, very good players usually find their way into the team and that is what I expect from him as well in the future at this club.”

He continued. “Trent was very good for us. He was and still is important in the attacking part of the game, and I also like the way he has defended so far in the matches he has played with us. He's made a step forward I think, he's done well for us and for England, and if I'm right about the games he played [for England], he won the Man of the Match award three times."