OSLO, NORWAY - Wednesday, August 7, 2013: Liverpool's Luis Alberto in action against Valerenga during a preseason friendly match at the Ullevaal Stadion. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

Luis Alberto’s pre-season absence points to impending Liverpool exit

Spanish midfielder Luis Alberto is likely to leave Liverpool this summer, as Jurgen Klopp looks to trim down his squad.

The 23-year-old has spent the past two seasons away from the club on loan, first with Malaga and then Deportivo de La Coruna, but returned to Merseyside at the end of June.

But despite reporting to Melwood for pre-season training on July 2, Alberto wasn’t considered for Klopp’s squad for Friday night’s 1-0 friendly win over Tranmere Rovers.

Fellow returning loanee Lazar Markovic was among those to feature, but Alberto found himself joining Mario Balotelli on the fringes.

Alberto is subject of interest from Sevilla this summer, while Deportivo are believed to be keen on securing his services on a permanent basis, and this omission points to an impending exit.

Liverpool are looking for £7 million for the midfielder, who last appeared for the club at the beginning of 2014.

Though a strong creative talent, Alberto’s lack of intensity was always likely to jar with Klopp’s tactical ideals, and with the German telling reporters at Prenton Park that his squad was “100 percent” too big, he looks poised to be one of those culled ahead of 2016/17.

Jurgen Klopp vs. Tranmere Rovers. Credit: Propaganda

“All these players that came back from loans are in the squad at the moment. We will have to see,” Klopp said.

“My job is to give them the best training I can and in the end we may have to make decisions because today we had 20 [players], we had three or four at home and 14 still on [holiday], so that’s 38 and 100 percent too much.

“We will have to make a few decisions but each club that takes a player from us can be sure he has had two or three weeks of really hard and intensive training in his legs and will be as fit as possible.”

The sale of Alberto could come as part of a busy summer of departures, with the likes of Christian Benteke, Martin Skrtel, Jordon Ibe and Sergi Canos all set to leave the club.

Liverpool agreed buy-back clauses in deals for Ibe and Canos, but it is unlikely that Alberto will be the subject of similar interest.

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