Ally McCoist makes feelings clear on Arne Slot and Liverpool's biggest problem

Much-loved football pundit Ally McCoist believes there is a dark cloud hanging over Liverpool at the moment due to the contract situations of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

All three players are due to become free agents at the end of the season and the cost of replacing each player with a player of similar quality would be astronomical.

Salah has started the season excellently, scoring five goals and registering four assists in eight appearances, while Van Dijk has looked typically serene at center-half and Alexander-Arnold has settled into life under Arne Slot as a more orthodox right-back.

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McCoist has called on the Reds to address the issue as soon as possible. McCoist told talkSPORT BET: "The problem still hanging over the club which they still need to address is the contract situations. We’re talking about three of their most important players, they have to do something about it. If not, that dark cloud will hang over the playing staff and the fans until it’s resolved.

“In an ideal world they would keep hold of all three of Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk. All three of them are fabulous football players and top professionals. However, they can’t afford to just keep them for one season and then let them go on a free. Anyone with business sense will tell you that you cannot let assets worth tens of millions of pounds leave for nothing.

“The most important thing for the fans is the football team on the pitch, but they’ll realise that the club has to be run smartly with a proper business model. For that reason, they need to get the situation ironed out sooner rather than later.”

On the pitch, McCoist is loving what he's seeing from Liverpool under new boss Slot. The Reds have started the season in excellent form, winning seven of their eight games heading into the Champions League meeting with Bologna at Anfield.

“I’ve enjoyed what Liverpool have been doing so far this season under Arne Slot,” said McCoist. “They’ve had a really solid start and aside from one loss, they’ve been really good. I’ve also liked listening to Slot, he sounds like the real deal both before and after games. I think Liverpool fans will be giving him big pass marks at this moment in time.

“They had one blip losing to Nottingham Forest at home, and they surprised me with the lack of opportunities they created in that game. I’ve always looked at Liverpool as a team who a great going forward, creating lots of chances and scoring goals, but they weren’t at it in that particular game. But that can happen to any team, we’ve all had games like that.”