Michael Owen shares concerns for Arne Slot over four Liverpool players

Liverpool’s new head coach Arne Slot will arrive at the club with the squad in an interesting position. It is undoubtedly a talented roster of players, though two former important contributors have left, in Joël Matip and Thiago Alcântara, and other vital men are entering the final year of their current contract.

It is the latter issue which appears to be of greater concern to Michael Owen. The ninth top scorer in the history of the club is now a pundit and has been speaking to DAZN, via AceOdds, about this potential problem.

Owen believes that if other top stars left Liverpool, his former club may struggle to adequately replace them. "My worry is, those absolutely unique players that are just the difference makers in the biggest of big games, they are the ones that I'm thinking, ‘oh, who's going to replace Mo Salah whenever the time is? Who's going to replace Virgil Van Dijk?’ Alisson is another one,” he said.

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"There’s certain players that are just exceptional and just world class and they're literally one of the best in the world in that position,” Owen continued. “And without being disrespectful if any other player - you could say Trent Alexander-Arnold is another player that's a bit like that, like so you unique but with all due respect, any other player, if they left Liverpool, you'd think, 'Well, okay, it's a bit sad, but you can definitely replace them’.”

“You can definitely get another Luis Díaz or Darwin Núñez or Curtis Jones or, whoever it might be. You can find those players out there,” he added.

"They're really, really good players. You can find them. You can't replace Virgil van Dijk. You can't replace Mo Salah. You simply can't,” said the former England international.

“And that's Liverpool's biggest challenge now. It is to go and try to find the next 20-22-year-old who is an absolute difference maker who can stay in the team for another 10 years, pin you up, and build a team around.”

"So that's my biggest worry,” Owen concluded. “Not for the here and now, but like in two- or three years' time, I think Liverpool is going to be really - just like they did when they got Alisson and got Van Dijk. 'We need these, this type of player.' They just went bang and just spent the big money to do it. I think that's going to happen again in the next year or two."

Liverpool.com says: Owen's fears will be shared by Liverpool supporters everywhere. The trio of Alexander-Arnold, Salah and van Dijk are arguably the Reds' three most important players (though Alisson deserves a shout) and all could leave the club for free next summer as things stand. Replacing them, whenever the time comes, will be a near-impossible task.