Arne Slot said he “cannot control” the private lives of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold after the trio played their final Liverpool match before they become free to negotiate with other clubs.West Ham were routed 5-0 at the London Stadium to send Slot’s side eight points clear at the top of the Premier League with Salah and Alexander-Arnold amongst five different scorers.All three players will be able to enter talks with foreign clubs as of January 1 as their contracts move into their final six months, with no sign of deals imminent, whilst Salah told Sky Sports “we are far away” when asked if there was any good news imminent on his contract talks.“I think I have a lot of control over what they do if they’re on the training pitch, if there in a meeting with me,” said Slot. “But talking about their private lives, I don’t have control.“That’s been the situation as a long as I’ve been a manager but I have control to an extent (in terms of) what I expect from them on the pitch. It’s really pleasing to see what Virgil brings, what Trent brings and what Mo brings.”
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00:00Full time at the London Stadium and that was a very, very heavy defeat for West Ham indeed.
00:065-0 they lost to Liverpool who go 8 points clear at the top of the Premier League
00:11and I think that there will be an understanding, there certainly felt like there was
00:14from many of the West Ham supporters that this was simply 5-star Liverpool doing their thing
00:19but West Ham made it very, very easy for them at the moment.
00:22West Ham were 3-0 down at half time thanks to 3 goals in 14 minutes by Liverpool
00:28and some of the defending was pretty hopeless from West Ham's perspective.
00:32For one of the goals Mohamed Salah nutmegged two of the three players in West Ham's back line
00:38before assisting and in the second half Trent Alexander-Arnold for the fourth goal
00:43was simply knocked closed down by a single player and his shot flew in via a deflection off Max Killman.
00:49So the defending will be of real concern to Julian Lopetegui.
00:53The final match of 2024 ends in a 5-0 defeat to Liverpool for West Ham
00:59but this was just a case of a very, very good team visiting the London Stadium
01:03and it was made very, very easy for them.