Every word Arne Slot said on Darwin Nunez critics, Diogo Jota return and Federico Chiesa plan

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has given his press conference ahead of facing Fulham in the Premier League, where he gave interesting responses on Darwin Nunez critics, Diogo Jota return and Federico Chiesa plan.

Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold's contracts: "It doesn't worry me, we just accept the situation as it is. It's a creative way of asking, did your boss help you? It's the same situation as it is, but they play at a very good club, they play really well at the moment, hopefully we can keep it for a really long time like this."

Praise for Mohamed Salah: "In general, he's working really hard for the team when we don't have the ball. That's something that is really important for us as a team as well. I work with a lot of quality players over here, and Mo is definitely one of them.

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"He's one of those who should score goals, like the other attackers we have. He's also a reason we keep as many clean sheets as we do, because we defend with 11 and attack with 11, he's one of the ones who is the end product of our attacks. He's been doing that for years for Liverpool, let's hope he can keep doing that as well."

Was Girona a kick up the backside? "I don't think we need one, the players have been outstanding in every single game. This wasn't our best performance but it was still good enough to win a Champions League away game.

"We're gonna face Fulham now, who have done really well this season, and we should have a much better performance against them than we had against Girona to be able to get a result."

On Alisson Becker's return from injury: "Hopefully the amount of time he needed, and we thought he needed, to get him back to his best possible level, also helped us for the long-term, it's not just that he's there for the next few weeks, but it's something that has to be shown in the upcoming weeks and months that he can stay available.

"He worked really hard with our performance and medical staff to get where he is now, and hopefully he doesn't get the same amount of work every game he plays, but if he does, he's shown he's able to cope in a really good way for us."

On Darwin Nunez's struggles: "For me he has impacted. If you only look at goals he hasn't scored the amount of goals he wants to score or we want our No.9 to score, but he does have impact in his workrate. That's not just for the other team to not create a chance, but also for us if we lose the ball and we get aggressive, we can get the ball back and create chances.

"He's part of a team that scores a lot of goals and is winning a lot. Of course as a No.9 you want to score more goals and that's definitely what he wants, but until now I don't just judge Mo on his goals or Darwin on his goals, I also judge them on their workrate and what they bring to the team.

"That's been positive for us, except for him wanting to score more goals. Maybe also because the fans support him so much, maybe he wants it too much to score goals for himself and the fans because they've been so supportive."

Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa to return: "I think they are [available this weekend]. We have one more training session to go, Federico missed a lot for a long time, he was ill last week so we have to see how he is. Maybe Diogo is in the squad, maybe Federico as well but that depends on the numbers and how he's recovered from his illness."

Is Chelsea in the Premier League title race? "I think I've said a few times what I think about Chelsea — before we played them, after we played them and a few weeks later. It was one of the only games where I felt the other team was better than us during that game.

"That's not to say for a long time they were better than us, but they had more ball possession than us, threatening us more than any other team until now, that was my opinion of them then and it is now. I won't judge where they are in the league table, but Chelsea has been impressive this season, that's for sure."

Slot's plan for Chiesa return: "What's difficult is we play so many games, and what he needs is playing time. The problem is if you haven't played for five or six months, it's difficult for a manager to give him his first minutes, because you don't know what to expect.

"Yes you see him on the training ground, but ideally you'll see him in a friendly during the week or a U21 game, but that's not the situation we have because we play so many games. Maybe the Southampton game will be a good moment for him to get some playing minutes, then we'll know what to expect from him.

"We see his quality, we know his quality, but he needs to get his fitness level, and if you only have training that's not the same as playing time. You need playing time to reach those fitness levels.

"If you're competing for the league, competing in the Champions League, it's not always easy to find these minutes. Maybe if you're 4/5-0 up, but for the whole season that's only been once, I think, the rest has been a struggle or a fight for every game."