Arne Slot insists he is not considering what might happen with Diogo Jota or Darwin Nunez's Liverpool futures. Instead, the Liverpool head coach is focusing on a strong finish to end the campaign as Premier League champions.
Jota has endured another injury-hit term, going nearly four months between league starts after suffering an upper body issue against Chelsea on October 20, while Nunez was subject of interest from Saudi Arabia in the January transfer window.
Jota's goal in Wednesday's 1-0 win over Everton was his first since the 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest in mid-January, while Nunez has registered just five himself in the league, leading to increased discussion around the need for a striker in this summer's transfer window.
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Slot, though, reiterated that both have long-term contracts at Anfield at present and says he is not planning for life without either but is instead aiming to finish the final eight games with a flourish.
"It is funny now that we go from Mo, Virgil, Trent to players who have long-term contracts," Slot said. "No, I am happy with Diogo and I am happy with Darwin. But I always say in football there is no long term without the short term and I am fully focused on the short term.
"Since he and Darwin both have contracts for years, the last thing that is on my mind is these two. Of course, we are a bit focused on the other players (Alexander-Arnold, Salah, Van Dijk), me a bit, Richard (Hughes) probably a lot. But the ones who have a contract I am not focused on that at all."
Slot's side travel to Fulham on Sunday needing just 13 points from their final eight games to win the title and the Reds have lost just once all season, which came in September's 1-0 Anfield reverse to Nottingham Forest.
Slot added: "Sometimes it is also good when you lose a game of football, especially if you lose it in a manner which doesn’t fit our standards. And that keeps them awake I think.
"The way we lost against Newcastle is not the way we want to lose a game of football. Again credit to them, but I just focus on my team and that day wasn’t of our standards. The game we lost against PSG was over my standards - what a game of football!
"If that then happens in this league, because it is such a hard league this season, if you show an okay-to-good standard, it is not enough. You have to show up good-to-excellent in work rate in how good you are with the ball otherwise teams punish over here.
"[The Forest defeat] annoyed me back then, looking back at it now it is not as weird that we lost that game as I thought at that moment. Last season Forest were, at a certain moment, even fighting to try and stay up.
"So to then lose a home game in that period of time when I also heard that Virgil only lost one or two home games out of 100 or so in his Liverpool career, I thought: ‘Wow, this is not a good thing.’
"But looking at their season now, that is a bit different. It was a poor game, but a team who played a similar style to Everton and Newcastle did in the final and Manchester United when they played against us here at home.
"If you want to win the league you need to have a record like we have. Arsenal also lost only twice, so this is normal for a team that wants to compete in top two, top three."
