Arne Slot has praised the trio of players who are out of contract at the end of the season for their focus despite the speculation surrounding their futures and said that talks are continuing.

Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold can speak to overseas clubs from 1 January and while the Liverpool head coach would not be drawn into how those talks are going he confirmed the club are still trying to find a solution.

Related: Arne Slot warns of ‘many challenges still ahead’ after Liverpool extend lead

Asked if he expected anything to change before the start of the new year, Slot said: “If we would then it’s probably not the moment to tell you now. In general, I don’t talk about contract situations here. It would be a surprise if I was the one to announce that one of them have extended.

“Keep asking, that’s your job, but you’re probably not going to get an answer from me. It’s clear that from 1 January, maybe for you guys, things change a lot but they are in constant talks with the club and let’s wait and see what happens. As long as they keep performing like this, the head coach is happy.”

Liverpool have lost only once in the league – against Nottingham Forest at home in mid-September – and travel to West Ham on Sunday. They have one of the top flight’s meanest defences and there was extra praise for Van Dijk after the 3-1 win against Leicester on Boxing Day.

“He is a tremendous player and has been for so many years for Liverpool,” Slot said. “Unfortunately he was out with an injury for almost all of the season [2020-21] and that didn’t help this football club at all. So that probably tells you how much of an impact he’s had here at this club. I can only tell you about my experiences of him and not only is what you see during the games – but he has such a big impact during training sessions as well.

“He is the vocal leader of the team and every time we start an exercise he is on top of his teammates and he leads by example. So, for me, he has been outstanding until now and I only hope he can continue showing this during the games and the training sessions as long as he is with us.”

Liverpool will be without the suspended Dominik Szoboszlai against West Ham and Slot confirmed that two injured defenders, Ibrahima Konaté and Conor Bradley, will not be involved either but could be fit for the visit of Manchester United on 5 January.

“They will not be back for West Ham,” he said. “Then there is a week in between. Let’s see how close they are then. It is difficult to tell you at this moment because they don’t train with the group yet. Hopefully, in the upcoming days they come closer to that situation. But then again, Ibou has been out for five or six weeks maybe, Conor just as long and they are in competition with players who are completely fit and doing really well. So I have to make the right judgment the moment they are back.”