Arne Slot has revealed his Liverpool team will undergo a "little transition" in the summer, but he insists it will not be as "drastic" as 12 months ago. 

Liverpool spent a reported £450m following their Premier League title success in Slot's first season in charge, though many of those arrivals have yet to match their pricetags. 

Both Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz broke the British transfer record, while Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong also came in for big-money fees. 

The Reds' average age in the squad is 26, though that is set to fall after both Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson confirmed they would be leaving at the end of the season. 

Last week, Salah said that "the bond of the team is changing, so I really hope the guys hold it together", though Slot argued the unity between the players was still intact.

"Indeed, it will be another little transition, probably not as drastic as it was last summer, but we have to change a bit of personnel because of the players who are leaving," Slot said. 

"There is a difference between bonding and mentality. When it comes to bonding, it makes complete sense that players who have played six, seven, eight, nine years together have more bonding than when there are a group of players that are new with each other.

"When it comes to mentality, I think this team has shown many times this season that when we were in difficult circumstances – even last week at [Manchester] United being 2-0 down at half-time.

"Again, they showed the mentality to come back into the game and when we were back in the game at 2-2, we probably deserved to get the third goal, which we didn't get, which has also happened many times this season."

Liverpool know four points from their remaining three games will clinch a spot in the Champions League next season, an achievement that could prove key in attracting new faces to Anfield. 

They face Chelsea on Saturday and will be looking to bounce back from their 3-2 defeat to Manchester United, their 11th of the Premier League season, their most since losing 12 games in the 2014-15 campaign under Brendan Rodgers.

The Reds have lost their last two league games against Chelsea, as many as they had in their previous 20 (W8 D10). They last lost three in a row against the Blues between December 2013 and November 2014.

Their chances could be helped by the returns of Isak and Giorgi Mamardashvili from injury, though Slot confirmed that both Salah and Alisson would have to wait a little longer before coming back into the side. 

"Alex [Iask] trained with us again, only for the first time, yesterday. So that is a positive. Yesterday he did parts of it [training]," Slot said.

"Hopefully he can do parts or all of it. Then we will see how much we can use him.

"Alisson is not yet. He hasn't trained with us yet but is very close. Mamardashvili will train with us today for the first time, so let's see how he is going to react.

"Mo also hasn't trained with us yet but is also getting very, very close to training with us."