Liverpool’s Moreno filled with ‘rage’ after Rodgers snub

(Reuters) – Being dropped by former manager Brendan Rodgers at the start of the season filled Liverpool’s Alberto Moreno with “rage”, the defender said, adding that he felt the Northern Irishman did not trust him as much as new boss Juergen Klopp.

Moreno did not start any of Liverpool’s first five games of the season under Rodgers, with 18-year-old Joe Gomez preferred over the Spaniard.

The 23-year-old has since put in a series of impressive displays under Klopp and credits the German with having a positive impact at Anfield.

“I think that it has been a 100 percent change. Everything is totally different,” Moreno was quoted as saying by British media.

“He (Klopp) spoke to all the players and … he told us we all started from zero. I do feel he trusts me, he spends a lot of time with me.

“The fact he has spent so much time with me, I think, shows up in good performances on the field.

“I just get the impression that he (Klopp) really feels the game.”

The Spaniard was less effusive about Rodgers. He said he never wanted to leave the club while sat on the sidelines but was “angry” at being dropped without a clear explanation.

“I perhaps felt that he (Rodgers) didn’t have quite so much confidence in me, certainly at the start of this season,” Moreno said.

“He told me I was training hard but then I didn’t feature for those first five or six games.

“He said to me that it was still early in the season and that my opportunity would come, but after the first game against Stoke City, when we kept a clean sheet, he said he wasn’t going to change anything defensively at that point.

“It never entered my head that I was going to leave. I want to stay for ever. But I had this inner anger, a rage almost.

“I felt I was playing well, training well. He told me I was training well. But I couldn’t see why I wasn’t getting a chance.”

(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru. Editing by Patrick Johnston)