Arne Slot says it's a compliment when people say Liverpool have spent £450m in the transfer window

Liverpool will commence their Champions League campaign on Merseyside against familiar foes Atletico Madrid on Wednesday. The Reds have made the perfect start in the Premier League, having won all four of their fixtures so far.

Despite not being at their best, the six-time Champions League winners have got the job done, with their new signings looking to gel together. Liverpool spent £446m this summer, the most by any Premier League in a single window. In his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Atletico, Slot addressed the buzz around Liverpool's spending spree in the market.

"We spent so much money, but we’ve sold for 300 million—I repeat, for 300 million. I think it’s only a compliment that people say we’ve spent so much, because that shows the players we brought in are seen as very good players. I’m partly responsible for bringing the players in, together with some other people. And I think we should see this as a compliment, that everybody is like, ‘Wow, they did great business.’ And I think we did—we’ve brought in great players. To add to that, we’ve already lowered the age of the players."

He elaborated on Liverpool's business model:

"If they are with you for four or five years, you can still sell Luis Díaz for 80 million. But if he were 28, I think it’s harder to sell him for 80 million when he’s 32. That’s our model, and I think that model should get a lot of praise, because I’ve said it here in England once or twice, and I can say it one more time to you as well. I think all the money we’ve spent, we generated ourselves by selling and by winning the league after we didn’t buy anyone at all. I don’t know if you know, but if you win the league, it’s quite good financially as well. So those two situations led to the fact that we could spend 450 million. It wasn’t as if we looked in the ground and saw, ‘Oh, there’s money coming up, let’s spend 450.’"

Out of the £446m, £125 million was spent on record British signing Alexander Isak from Newcastle. With fans eager to get a glimpse of the Swede in a Liverpool shirt, Slot said he will likely feature tomorrow.

"There's definitely a chance, because he's in the squad. He will not play 90 minutes, but if people are looking forward to him playing tomorrow, then that could happen."

Furthermore, the manager mentioned the challenges Isak could face with his new club:

"Getting fit. Getting fit after missing out on four months of proper team sessions. He doesn’t have to prove to anyone that he’s good enough to play in the Premier League, because he’s already proven that at Newcastle. The main challenge he has is to become so fit that he’s, first of all, ready to do what he did last season."

On Liverpool's perfect start this season, Slot said:

"We are far above my expectations during the summer. We all knew we had to face Newcastle away, Arsenal and Bournemouth at home, so for us to have 12 points (in the league) is so much more than I expected, especially with the changes in the squad as well."

Another one of Liverpool's new signings, Florian Wirtz, is yet to make an impact so far. When asked about his thoughts on Wirtz so far, Slot said:

"He's been part of a team that's on top of the league, that has won four games. It's the way you want to look at it. Yes he has not scored 4 goals and 12 assists, but that's down to the quality we've faced."

Up against a resilient Atletico Madrid side, Slot was wary of the quality his opponents possess. On the difficulty of the fixture, he mentioned:

"Atletico is a difficult team to play against. Because of their mentality. Because of their team performance, individual quality."

Arne Slot's side were rampant in the new-format Champions League league-phase last season, winning seven of their eight matches and finishing top of the table. However, they fell to eventual-champions PSG in the round of 16. Asked if he felt Liverpool got an unfair Round of 16 fixture, Slot said:

"It's not fair to judge something on one event. If it's just one event, then it doesn't matter if you end up no.1, or no.2, or no. 8, because we had a very difficult draw. No. 11 Real Madrid had to play no. 22 Manchester City...if you asked me this question immediately after the tie with Paris Saint-Germain last season, I would say forget about the first eight games. But now, I would say, don't judge the format based on one event. I will judge it after 3-4 times (seasons), maybe in the upcoming seasons, the winner of the league phase might have a favourable draw, but that was not the situation last season."

Yet, the Dutchman mentioned that they lost against the best team in Europe last season.

"Luis Enrique said before our tie that the team that wins this will win the Champions League, and he was right. We were the only team that could bring them to extra time and penalties. So it was frustrating, but if I go out (out of competition), I prefer to go out against the team that wins it in the end. They were the best team in Europe last season."

Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid have had a shaky start to the season, winning just one of their opening four games. That, coupled with Liverpool's latest winning streak, means the Spanish outfit could have a tough outing under the lights at Anfield.