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Alberto Moreno has been one of Liverpool’s players of the season so far and the lone consistent bright spot in a sometimes shaky defensive unit. And if anyone had said that would be the case at the end of last season, nobody would have believed them.
It’s been a remarkable turnaround for a player who hardly played last year and appeared to have fallen to third on the depth chart behind James Milner and new signing Andy Robertson before the 2017-18 campaign kicked off. Moreno, though, has turned things around.
"Klopp was very honest,” Moreno noted of the challenge he faced over the offseason to convince manager Jürgen Klopp he still had a role to play at the club. “He couldn't promise me anything and told me that they were going to sign a new left-back.
“But I wanted to play for Liverpool. It's a great club and I could see myself playing here. Staying meant that I had to work hard and that's what I have done. My family never let me down, they encouraged me to keep going. Now I have to take the most of the opportunity."
That hard work hasn’t just paid off with a regular place in the starting eleven for Liverpool. It’s also seen Moreno called up to the Spanish national team for the first time since 2013, with the 25-year-old preferred to Arsenal’s Nacho Monreal.
He’s expected to start at least one of Spain’s upcoming friendlies, against Costa Rica on the 11th and Russia on the 14th, and if he continues to play well will be a favourite to make the squad for next summer’s World Cup—another thing nobody would have believed a few months ago.
“Right now I do not think about anything,” he added. “I only think about playing, keep doing what I am doing. and whatever has to come in the future will come. I only think about the day to day and the game to game. Nothing else.
"Last season was bad. There was a moment in which my mind said. 'Alberto, whatever you do will be useless'. But it is always said new year, new life, so I started the new season with that mentality.”