Arne Slot makes Liverpool title claim as new deal sees transfer spend pass £300m

Arne Slot believes this Premier League season will be harder than ever. The Reds have splashed the cash with their spending to go north of £300million once they complete the capture of Giovanni Leoni today for £26m.

But they have also lost key men such as Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Diaz in a summer of change at Anfield for the reigning champions. Their title rivals Arsenal and Manchester City have also spent big to strengthen their squads for what could be a titanic title tussle this season.

Slot said: "The reason that is so difficult is there are so main competitors who can also win the league here. To win it once is already very, very special. That is unbelievable if you are able to do it [twice] in this league. This year it is probably going to be harder than before."

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The Reds kick off their campaign on Friday night against Bournemouth at Anfield. Liverpool will have some new weapons in their artillery for their title defence. Not least the £116m signing of Florian Wirtz. The British transfer record fee will heap pressure on Wirtz but Slot is not concerned about it having an affect on the 22-year-old midfielder.

“He might be young but he already won a lot,” he said. “Factually, we can see him as a young player but in terms of his experience, I don’t see him as a young player.

“He won the league with Germany, won the cup, has played for his country numerous times and apart from that, his mentality is his biggest strength. That says a lot because if you see him play, you’re like: ‘Are you serious because he’s so creative’. But how mentally strong he is, he doesn’t get distracted at all by a transfer fee or anything else.”

But there will be some adaptation needed for Wirtz after arriving from Bayer Leverkusen, where he worked under Xabi Alonso. Slot added: “Good players always find a way to play well in good teams and he is a good player in a good team.

“He does like all the others (need help). We have a very good player care department so I’m not looking for houses with him or these kind of things.

“But on the pitch, on the training ground and in videos, he needs help in how we want to play. That’s not different than Xabi Alonso. The system is different but we want to be intense like Xabi Alonso wanted him to be intense.

“Xabi wanted to bring him in positions we try to bring him in. But it’s true he adjusts to England, the league, the intensity and to his new team-mates but if you saw the games, his adjustment went better than even expected and we expected a lot.”

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