Lucas Leiva has claimed that former Liverpool man Luis Alberto is now one of the best players in Italy.
The Brazilian, who spent 10 years at Liverpool, has been interviewed by The Athletic. During the interview he said that Alberto was unlucky during his time at Liverpool.
“He was very young when he came to Liverpool like I was when I arrived,” said Lucas.
“Probably he didn’t have the luck I had in having a manager who could maybe have been a bit more patient with him.”
Alberto joined Liverpool as a 21-year-old in the summer of 2014. He was on the periphery of the squad as Brendan Rodgers’ side went so close to winning the Premier League.
After just 12 appearances across all competitions, he spent the next two season on-loan in Spain with Malaga and then Deportivo La Coruna.
When in Rome
Liverpool finally sold Alberto to Lazio for just £4.3m on transfer deadline day in August 2016. A tall and languid creative force for Lazio, it’s possible that he wasn’t seen as a ‘Jurgen Klopp player’.
Since then, the Spaniard has provided 45 assists in 165 Serie A games and even made his debut for his national team.
Lucas, a teammate of Alberto for a second time after joining Lazio in 2018, says Liverpool missed out on the 29-year-old.
“The quality was always there and he had to go to Spain to get more experience,” said the 34-year-old.
“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.”
The one that got away
It’s disappointing that Alberto wasn’t given more time to prove his worth at Liverpool. But in truth, had he impressed whilst on loan in La Liga, he might have been.
However, his loan spells were underwhelming. Although he showed enough to encourage Liverpool to spend £6.8m on him in the first place, few could have seen his development taking off so much.
It’s great to see him flourishing in Rome, though. He has four goals and seven assists this season as Lazio push for a Champions League place.
The Reds haven’t often got it wrong on the transfer front in recent years. But Alberto is proving to be a rare case of the one that got away.
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