Speaking to The Athletic, Lucas Leiva has been full of praise for his current Lazio and former Liverpool teammate Luis Alberto.
Every team has that story of the one that got away. For Chelsea it’s Mohamed Salah, for Manchester United it’s Gerard Pique and for Liverpool, right now, it’s Alberto.
The Spaniard has been starring in Serie A for a number of years now, regularly hitting double figures in terms of assists, but sadly, it never worked out for him at Liverpool.
Lucas has now gone on the record to speak about Alberto, claiming that the 29-year-old was unlucky at Anfield.
What’s been said?
Lucas gave his view on the Spaniard.
“He was very young when he came to Liverpool like I was when I arrived,” Lucas said.
“Probably he didn’t have the luck I had in having a manager who could maybe have been a bit more patient with him.
“The quality was always there and he had to go (on loan) to Spain (at Malaga and Deportivo La Coruna) to get more experience. Then he moved to Lazio and his first year wasn’t easy. But afterwards, he just found himself. He could show his qualities and has been one of the best players in the league the last few years. His quality in the final third is incredible.”
Bad luck
Alberto is clearly a player good enough to play for a team like Liverpool. After all, he scored 11 goals and grabbed 14 assists in Serie A during his first season at Lazio.
Sadly though, he wasn’t given much of a chance by Liverpool, and that can only be put down to bad luck.
To be fair to Brendan Rodgers, he didn’t have much room for Alberto in that Liverpool side.
The attacking spots were all taken up by Raheem Sterling, Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge – three players in the form of their lives, while Philippe Coutinho was the main creator in the midfield.
Alberto was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and sadly, that meant he was sold by Liverpool at the age of 23.
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