Brendan Rodgers believes his Liverpool side can bounce back from their “incredible” 6-1 defeat at Stoke City, on the final day of last season, when they start the new campaign visit the Britannia Stadium this Sunday.
Liverpool were beaten by Stoke City in May as a campaign that promised much for the 2013-14 runners-up ended in a heavy defeat.
Much has changed at Anfield since then, with Steven Gerrard and Raheem Sterling leaving and Christian Benteke, Roberto Firmino and James Milner among the arrivals. Rodgers has also overhauled his backroom staff over the close-season, and the Northern Irishman believes his new-look team are ready for their second successive Barclays Premier League match at the Britannia Stadium.
“We’ll certainly be better than we were last year that’s for sure,” Rodgers said on Friday. “It was a one-off game in terms of the whole experience, it was incredible in every aspect. It’s something that was very surprising and very disappointing.
“We’ll look to return to the level we’ve had over a couple of season in organisation and fight. It will certainly be tougher [for Stoke] than it was last year. When the fixtures came out I felt we couldn’t have had a better fixture, for me it was the perfect away fixture.”
Mark Hughes, meanwhile, believes his Stoke side can give Liverpool just as much of a test as they did in May.
“Liverpool have made a number of signings and strengthened up,” the Stoke manager said. “They will come here feeling they are better equipped to deal with us.
“We feel we can be even stronger than we were last time. All being well we will give Liverpool the same problems they had in May.”
Stoke too have added attacking options to their ranks with the signings of Joselu and Ibrahim Affelay, while Glen Johnson could line up against his former club. Hughes will be without Ryan Shawcross, though, with the captain and centre-back set for surgery on his back.
Marc Wilson may have been in line to partner Philipp Wollscheid in Shawcross’ absence but he has been struck down with an ankle injury, so Marc Muniesa looks set to celebrate his new four-year contract – signed on Friday – with a start.
Stoke City (from): Butland, Haugaard, Given, Bardsley, Cameron, Johnson, Muniesa, Pieters, Teixeira, Wilkinson, Wilson, Wollscheid, Adam, Afellay, Ireland, Moha, Shenton, Sidwell, Van Ginkel, Whelan, Arnautovic, Bojan, Crouch, Diouf, Joselu, Odemwingie, Walters
Liverpool (from): Bogdan, Mignolet, Clyne, Jose Enrique, Gomez, Lovren, Moreno, Sakho, Skrtel, Toure, Can, Henderson, Lallana, Lucas, Markovic, Milner, Balotelli, Benteke, Borini, Coutinho, Firmino, Ibe, Ings, Origi.
source:premierleague.com
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 