Liverpool’s fourth unanswered contract question could soon become their most pressing

Luis Diaz hit a hat-trick in Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League in midweek to take his tally to nine goals already this season when he managed 13 in entirety of 2023-24

You may have heard about this, but three of Liverpool’s most important players are now just seven-and-a-half weeks away from being able to talk to foreign clubs about free transfers.

We all know that the talking is always going on anyway, but the stark reality that Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mo Salah are that close to ending their storied Anfield careers really does jar somewhat, even if the Reds remain calm on the trio’s situations.

Whatever will be will be, it seems, and while resolutions for all three, or maybe two of the three, are still certainly possible, you really have no choice but to peer into a Liverpool future where none of them are around any more.

Catastrophic, right? Maybe. Certainly not something that should be being actively encouraged anyway, but if the worst does happen then Liverpool do have players they’ll be hanging their hat on to step up and become superstars.

There’s Ibrahima Konate at centre-back who has already become Liverpool’s dominant defender during a stellar season, and Conor Bradley at right-back who doesn’t possess the skills of Alexander-Arnold but is an excellent conventional player for the position.

Then in attack while there may be no like for like replacement for Salah – because frankly who in the world would that be? – but there are options, and one of those options in particular is shining brighter than others right now.

“Lucho did really well and if was, even for me, maybe a bit of a surprise to see how well he did,” Arne Slot reflected on Friday when asked what he thought of Luis Diaz starting as his No.9 in the Champions League clash with Leverkusen.

“I played him there for a reason, I expected him to do good but that he played so well that was even a surprise for me.”

So well that he scored a hat-trick, and will probably keep his place there for the visit of Aston Villa on Saturday night as the curtain comes down on what until now has been a superb month of action for Liverpool before the latest international break.

“When we had Darwin (Nunez) and Diogo (Jota) available we always played one of those two,” continued Slot as spoke about his attacking options.

“To be honest I liked especially the last idea, I think every Liverpool supporter did with Lucho scoring three goals, two as a nine and one as a winger, so that is always interesting to see, but Lucho is also a very good left winger.

“At this moment we have four attackers available for three positions so we could come up with another idea again but if Diogo comes back and Darwin is back then we have two numbers nines available again.”