Could Alberto Moreno Be Off to Watford?

Like him or not, it was odd that Alberto Moreno could barely get his boots on the pitch last season. He’s not a terrible player by any stretch. Just look at his performance against Bayern Munich to see what Liverpool’s little left back is capable of. But I suppose there is something that keeps Jürgen Klopp from trusting Moreno to do the job with any regularity. It could be his historically iffy defending. It could be his famous iffy positional awareness. It could be that his reliability comes in fits and starts.

Whatever it is, Moreno has not managed to steal any meaningful game time away from James Milner in the last twelve months and now the signing of Andy Robertson from Hull City ensures that the competition for the left back position is well out of Moreno’s grasp.

Liverpool have put a £15million minimum on the Spaniard and thus far have only received an £11million bid from Napoli early in the summer. Rejected. But now it looks like his performance in Germany has moved a few eyeballs in his direction. Watford haven’t wasted any time in registering their interest in Moreno after watching the left-footed hoverboarder run rampant down the left in Munich. Marco Silva is said to have identified Moreno has a target to bolster the Hornet hive.

It’s unknown whether Watford are willing to match Liverpool’s valuation of the player but it’s a fair price for a left back who has shown to be up for it in a big game, preseason or not. Klopp even did his part to shore up that valuation when asked about Moreno’s display in Germany.

“If he plays like he did today then yeah (he has a chance of playing),” said Klopp.

“It was a really good game by Alberto. That’s why we kept him playing every second.

“He was playing better, he’s really fit.”

Assumptions arise with this last statement, “He’s really fit.” Either Moreno hasn’t fully integrated himself into his manager’s rigorous training program until recently or this summer. Or that it’s just taken so long for Alby’s body to finally reach peak Klopp-tasticness.

Or Moreno was battling an injury I’m not aware of, can’t remember, or am willfully ignoring. Any way it falls out, it’s a shame because peak Klopp-tastic Moreno clearly has some wings to flap but the wind’s already died down. And the expectation is that he’ll be off to friendlier skies very shortly.

There are likely to be other suitors than Watford who come calling for the ex-Sevilla man but if Moreno becomes a Hornet in the next week Liverpool could be in for a pint-sized surprise as Watford, with a newly-inspired Alby, could be an opening day shocker.

Like you needed something else to be worried about.