Arne Slot will have a full in-tray as and when he officially becomes Liverpool head coach. While not being granted the 'manager' title, amid a change in structure at the club, the Dutchman will nonetheless have more than enough on his plate.

Slot's primary responsibility will be to improve the players out on the training pitch, making sure they know how to play come matchday. But whatever your official title, a big part of taking over from Jürgen Klopp is man-management, and the Feyenoord boss will need to win over his new squad.

That's especially important in the case of players whose contracts are up for renewal. While Slot may be secondary to the likes of Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards in actually working on potential extensions, it is he who will have to get the players on-board to the point where they actually want to discuss fresh terms.

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In particular, Slot will need to convince Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and compatriot Virgil van Dijk as quickly as possible. He will have to show them that this new-look Liverpool is worth committing to, and it will then be up to the club to agree suitable terms.

Graeme Souness has warned that Van Dijk might not be easy to convince. He fears the captain is 'unhappy':

"The fact that Virgil van Dijk’s contract end is coming up worries me. He’s 33 in July, and if his agent were to call up the sporting director at Real Madrid, they’d take him," Souness told William Hill’s new Three Up Front podcast. "I just look at him now and the noise he’s been making, which he hasn’t done throughout his career, and I think he’s obviously unhappy.

"He’ll have asked questions about the new manager already and will be the one that Arne Slot has to win over. Slot must get Van Dijk onside — he’s the captain — but Van Dijk might not fancy him.

"He might’ve heard something on the grapevine and may think that this guy won’t take the team where they want to be, the clock is ticking on his career. Maybe he needs to go someplace else to win more silverware. He has won two of the big ones with Liverpool, but he’s not a serial winner."

Van Dijk did cast a little doubt on his future in the wake of Klopp's announcement of his departure, but quickly moved to clarify those remarks. He has enjoyed a successful individual season in his first campaign as Liverpool captain, sharing his inaugural trophy lift with Klopp before chastising those who 'thought he was finished'.

Liverpool.com says: With all due respect to Souness, he's crafted a bit of a fiction here. Van Dijk hasn't really been making any 'noise', and it's pretty baseless to suggest he is not happy.

Meanwhile, this idea that he might have heard bad things about Slot seems to have come from nowhere. If anything, Van Dijk will be more clued up than most on the new manager in waiting, given his achievements have come in the Eredivisie.

Nonetheless, this speculation is inevitable while the contract situation is unresolved. Slot will hope Van Dijk, Salah and Alexander-Arnold all feel able to commit to new deals before long.