Former Real Madrid, Liverpool and Spain striker Fernando Morientes spoke to BoyleSports about his illustrious career across Europe as well as discussing some of the biggest talking points in football as the season draws to a close.
The forward, who won the Champions League three times in his illustrious career, also managed to score 27 goals in just 47 appearances for the Spanish national team in a glittering nine-year period. With Liverpool braced for change under Arne Slot’s tenure, Morientes gives his honest thoughts in this enthralling conversation.
My Time At Liverpool Was Very Intense
My time at Liverpool was only a year and a half but it was very intense, we won the FA Cup and Champions League.
But because it was only a year and a half it was of course very difficult to adapt to the intensity of the league in such a span of time, but I learned so much and it was an honour to wear the Liverpool shirt.
I wasn’t the best at the club, and I didn’t have my best seasons there but it’s normal in football when you don’t have long to adapt. But it was such an important experience for me to play in the Premier League on that Liverpool team, who hold such a historic position in English football, and I enjoyed two great seasons there.
Alonso vs Gerrard Managerial Credentials
Well, what doesn’t surprise me is that the two of them have become coaches because they had great personalities as players, and a lot of intelligence to play football the way they did.
So as coaches that talent will translate, and it’s true that Xabi Alonso has been incredible from the beginning, but I think Gerrard also has that intuition as a coach, and I think they’re both going to have great futures.
Drawing attention to what Xabi has done at Bayer Leverkusen makes sense, but it seems to me that Gerrard in the future will be one of the great coaches to come out of England.
Can Slot Emulate Klopp?
The challenge is that Klopp has been at Liverpool for so long now, so to come in as the new coach and rise to that challenge will be really hard.
Slot will want to make sure that Liverpool can still grow and maintain the level of demand and greatness that has been established. But I think he’ll cope, and the club will remain great.
Bradley Covering Trent
Obviously, injuries are a part of life in football, and it’s true that when the big important players like Alexander-Arnold are injured the team feels it. But I think they’ve held up well with Bradley in the meantime.
Olmo Ready For Liverpool
He looks like a big player, and a player who is prepared and ready to make the jump to a team like Liverpool for a chance, because he’s a player who’s grown a lot since the last window, and he’s a sure fixture in the Spanish National team.
He’s a very smart player too, with a lot of resources to hurt defences, and he’s so good, here in Spain everyone would like to see him in a big team here. But outside of Spain, he’s certainly a player who’ll surely be one of the great Spanish players on the wider European football scene should he move away.
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