'If Mo Salah thought his comments would prompt Anfield uprising, he was very much mistaken'

While Liverpool fans are desperate for Egyptian star to stay, Arne Slot's impact has been so remarkable that most supporters would already trust him to cope without the main man

Even we in the media will soon tire of referring to Liverpool as a Slot machine but considering his start to managerial life in England, the terminology is appropriate. Not only is his team relentless, but Arne has hit the jackpot almost every week he has been here.

Slot has not been lucky but most things that could have gone right for him HAVE gone right for him. He could not, for example, have scripted Wednesday night’s events any better.

Any manner of victory over Real Madrid would have been taken but one in which a low-profile, rather unassuming midfielder and a non-flashy academy graduate take centre-stage - rather than a marquee name playing multi-million pound contract poker - must have been especially welcome. If Mohamed Salah thought his comments about not yet being offered a new deal might have prompted some sort of Anfield uprising, he was mistaken.

The Kop was more concerned with acclaiming Alexis Mac Allister and Conor Bradley, although they did try to cheer Salah up after he blasted his penalty wide. And the common response to Bradley’s performance was to very slightly soothe anxieties about the prospect of Trent Alexander-Arnold walking out of Anfield at the end of the season.

Slot is in a very interesting position when it comes to the Salah/Alexander-Arnold/Virgil van Dijk situation. What he probably should be doing is making it plain to Liverpool’s owners and executives that the trio must be offered the sort of deals they, hopefully, cannot refuse.

But with the impeccable job he is doing, Slot is already coming across as a manager who would take the departure of one or two of the trio in his stride. There can be no downplaying the remarkable nature of Slot’s first 15 weeks of competitive football as Liverpool manager.

Seventeen wins, one loss, one draw. Forty-four goals scored, 12 goals conceded. The time when you could say the fixture schedule has been kind to Liverpool and Slot has long gone.

The champions of Germany and the champions of Spain have been seen off in successive Champions League matches, with an aggregate 6-0 scoreline. And not only have his results been staggeringly good, Slot has been the antidote for those who have grown weary of the theatrics that have previously been accepted as part of an elite manager’s make-up.

Pep Guardiola’s passive-aggressive post-match chats with opposition players, Jurgen Klopp’s chest-thumping, Mikel Arteta’s touchline histrionics. There has been none of that stuff.

Of course, these are very early days and whether Slot remains so level-headed and so reasonable when a few things go against him will be interesting to see. But while we can reserve judgement, it is already safe to say it will be a BIG surprise if Slot does not prove to be the real deal, which makes the Anfield contract standoffs even more intriguing.

There is no manager who would be happy to lose any number of the three world-class players whose deals expire at the end of this season. But the deal Liverpool made to bring Arne Slot to the club means they have a manager who looks well-equipped to cope if he does.