Virgil van Dijk and Jürgen Klopp agree on situation Arne Slot is walking into at Liverpool

Arne Slot will no doubt have plenty of work to do when he arrives at Liverpool next month. Virgil van Dijk and Jürgen Klopp have both given him a hint of what he will be walking into though.

Slot will officially take charge of the Reds on June 1, having been confirmed as the club’s new head coach on Monday. He of course takes over from Klopp, who has now bid farewell to Anfield.

The Dutchman will have some big decisions to make, not least on his new squad. With Van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold all moving into the final year on their contracts, Slot and Richard Hughes will need to balance adding new faces with the priorities already awaiting them.

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Slot though won’t be walking into a club in need of a reset. Having been involved in the Premier League title race until the final weeks of the season, Liverpool has shown it is capable of competing with both Manchester City and Arsenal moving forward.

Klopp said as much in his farewell speech to the fans on Sunday. "Honestly, for whatever reason, it doesn’t feel like an end,” he told the crowd.

“It just feels like the start, because I saw today a football team playing full of talent, full of youth, full of creativity, full of desire, full of grit.”

When speaking to his players in the dressing room, he added: "The only ones who stopped them [City] was us, and you can do that again. There might be some people who say [third place] is not enough — I tell you, they don’t have a clue about football.

“Could we have had better moments? Yes, of course, that’s always possible. But did we do better than you can usually expect? Oh yes, because it takes longer to become a top team again. And you did that [clicks] like this and that’s why expectations go up like this and then we couldn’t keep the pace. That’s the problem a little bit.”

And Van Dijk would appear to concur with his departing manager. Speaking about Slot, the Liverpool captain said: “I am very curious and have a lot of questions all the time.

“We will see, the Premier League and Liverpool is obviously a different ball game but we are here for him, I'll be here for him whatever he needs. It is all about sticking together and give him the chance of showing what he is capable of with the other guys who will come in.

“He probably knows already but everyone knows our expectations are always huge and it is about managing that in the right way and getting the maximum out of all of our players. It starts with having a good break and then we are ready to go again.”

Slot and Hughes will no doubt look to bolster the squad for their first season together, but the Reds have shown that, unlike last season, no major surgery is required. Sure, some areas will need strengthening, but Liverpool already has the makings of a team that can challenge at the top of the Premier League once again.

Slot is walking into a team on the rise again. His job will be to build on the success Klopp has left for him.