Virgil van Dijk slams journalist for asking Arne Slot ‘disrespectful’ Xabi Alonso question as rumours swirl over Liverpool manager’s future

Addressing the media in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Dutchman Slot was surprisingly asked by one reporter whether Alonso had made contact since his dismissal as Real Madrid manager earlier this month.

Alonso - who has a deep affinity with Liverpool having represented the club as a player between 2004 and 2009 - left Real after less than eight months in charge. 

While Los Blancos said the decision was made by “mutual consent”, reports in Spain claim the 44-year-old - who won 24 of his 34 matches at the helm, losing six - was sacked.

Though Slot was clearly stunned by the journalist’s question, the 47-year-old joked that Spaniard Alonso had got in touch to say he was “going to take over in six months, or maybe earlier.”

However, while Slot was quick to brush off the question, Liverpool captain Van Dijk believes it was in poor taste.

“That (question) was disrespectful,” the Netherlands international said. “Criticism is justified if you look at what we are doing in the season, especially based on last season.

“It's been a difficult part of the season for us players and the manager as well but he (Slot) has handled it well.”

Former Feyenoord boss Slot has found himself under pressure at times this season, with Liverpool having lost four games in a row - to Crystal Palace, Galatasaray, Chelsea and Manchester United - between September and October.

The Anfield club also suffered three successive defeats against Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven in November, before their recent upturn in form.

Despite rumours linking Alonso with his post, Slot was able to put them to the back of his mind as he led Liverpool to an impressive 3-0 win away at Marseille in the Champions League.

The Merseysiders are now well-poised to automatically qualify for the last 16 of Europe’s elite club competition thanks to goals from Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo, while Marseille goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli also put through his own net at Stade Velodrome.

Liverpool - who are currently unbeaten in their last 13 games in all competitions - entertain Azerbaijani outfit Qarabag on Wednesday, 28 January, with Slot’s side aware that a victory at Anfield will secure them a top-four position, therefore avoiding the knockout play-off round in February.

Speaking after the win over Roberto De Zerbi’s Marseille - who are 19th in the Champions League standings and in danger of failing to qualify for the play-off phase - Slot said: “You know it is always very difficult to play against Marseille because of the passionate fans they have and the quality of the players. What makes it even harder is they have such a good manager (De Zerbi), who always lets his team play so well. We were prepared for that. 

“I think in the first half you could see we took the ball three or four times off them in very promising situations, but we couldn't find the player that was completely free. We were in four-versus-three situations a few times and the one time we did find the player, it was fractionally offside.”

Liverpool will look to keep their unbeaten run going when they return to Premier League action by visiting Bournemouth on Saturday - four days before their European tie against Qarabag.

One man who is well-positioned to start against Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth is Mohamed Salah, who returned to the Liverpool starting XI against Marseille following his participation at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with Egypt.

“It helps he is already for so long with us so he knows his teammates and he knows how we want to play,” Slot said of Salah’s performance. “It says a lot about how big of a professional he is that being away from us for a month in a different team, he was so fit to play 90 today. 

“He was close to a goal, a good ball from Cody and usually that's a goal for him. Tonight it wasn't but it didn't harm us because we scored three. I think overall, I saw a lot of very good individual performances, as I saw against Arsenal, as I saw against Burnley and as I saw tonight.”