Jürgen Klopp’s Trust In Alberto Moreno Goes To Eleven

It was a tough night for Alberto Moreno on Tuesday night in Sevilla, the Spaniard’s old stomping grounds. After a sting of errors that saw Liverpool heartbreakingly concede the pitch in the second half, Jürgen Klopp took Moreno out of the spotlight and back into the friend zone for many supporters who were starting to get a little too goo goo for the left back.

Moreno has been in really good form of late, but his performance in Spain over the week was not indicative of a player who has completely eradicated the unforced errors from his game. However, as you know, Klopp isn’t one to toss individual players under the bus.

“You saw the goals, how we conceded them was quite special but it was not a single player,” said Klopp.

“Yes, in the end the penalty was Alberto and with the free kick it was Alberto but it was not like that.

“Where we had the situation, why we had the situation, why we didn’t play the back pass in the penalty situation. We played other back passes.

“We had the ball around the third goal agin, it was between two of our players. We should react quicker and shoot the ball to Betis.

“We didn’t do that, so they could shoot, get the corner kick and score.”

As poor as Moreno’s display was in Sevilla, the congratulations for a job poorly done really has to be extended to the entire team on the pitch. It was a complete submission by Liverpool. But the manager does admit that perhaps, because of Alberto’s personal relationship to Sevilla, it was unwise to include him in the squad.

“In this case I had a talk, of course, to Alberto. I’m really happy about his shape, his performances and yes, in this game, it was really my responsibility. I could have done different things.

“Obviously, it was difficult in Sevilla in all the circumstances. Everybody was talking to him like they were talking to a family member.

“If there’s 1, 2 or 3 percent of concentration or whatever, you come a little bit too late and that’s now it started.

“My responsibility would have been to think about the line-up, or change, or change earlier or whatever. It’s not the player to blame, I’m 100 percent responsible for that.

“I told him I still trust him 100 percent.”

I’ll be expecting to see Moreno start on Saturday. Little Alby had a game to forget in Spain. And it’s arguably passed time for the waiting Andy Robertson to get some minutes. But a major match with Chelsea may be asking a lot of the Scotsman. Time to get back on the horse.