Liverpool 'could have sold star for £240m' as Arne Slot defends Florian Wirtz

Liverpool manager Arne Slot is confident that Florian Wirtz possesses the right mentality to handle the pressure of his first Merseyside derby. He stated that the £116million signing from Bayer Leverkusen wouldn't have made it to the Premier League without such a mindset. Wirtz has faced criticism for his performances because of his price tag, with neutrals expecting a more eye-catching immediate impact.

Despite the hefty price tag, Slot insists that Wirtz won't be fazed by it. The German international is yet to score or assist in the Premier League but showed promise in Wednesday's 3-2 Champions League victory over Atletico Madrid. "I think to say that he's [only] an artist doesn't do him justice," said Slot. "He is an artist, but he can be mean as well.

"Otherwise, you can't reach the levels he's reaching. He works incredibly hard here in this building to get better and better and better. So that mentality he has inside of him and you also see that mentality when he loses the ball once or twice. He's not going to hide, he wants the third one, he wants the fourth one.

"In general, it's not just about Florian, we have to play three games in seven days. And if you've watched what we did on Sunday and what we did on Wednesday, we are trying to manage to get them all fit through these three games because it's not a present that we got to play in the beginning of the season three games in seven days."

Slot believes that Trent Alexander-Arnold, the previous creator-in-chief at Anfield before Wirtz's arrival, could have been sold by Liverpool for £240million. The Dutchman continued: "We [don't have] long conversations [about fees]. Sometimes you see when you pass them or in a remark like: 'Virgil, if you put inflation to that, he would be just as expensive as you'. "And then I say: 'Listen, Trent Alexander-Arnold was £10m for a one-month contract [to join Real Madrid for the Club World Cup], multiply that by 12, you come to £120m.

"He only had a one-year contract [left at Liverpool], so what happened if we would have sold Trent when he had two years to go? Then we would have been £240m. We face a player tomorrow that's been bought by Manchester City for £100m (Jack Grealish), and that's now at Everton.

"So this is the world we are living in and I don't think it is something we speak about a lot, but sometimes in a joke or in a remark." What is different for Florian is that he went to a new club where we probably do things a lot different on and off the pitch. "It is not Eredivisie, and I think the Bundesliga is in between Eredivisie and the Premier League.

"So maybe that's also the reason why he and Hugo Ekitike loved to come here because they want to make the next step in their career. But he's adjusting, in my opinion, very well.

"He always wants to have the ball, even if he has a few moments where we feel like he could do better. "He just always wants to keep the ball, always keeps on trying. And he gets better and better, and fitter and fitter.

"That's maybe the thing that matters most, because we don't have to teach him how to play football. "He just has to adapt to the intensity levels of the Premier League through these three games because it's not a present that we got to play in the beginning of the season three games in seven days."