Football
Glenn Price, Liverpool correspondent 8y

Jurgen Klopp hails Marko Grujic after Liverpool friendly vs. Fleetwood Town

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was pleased with what he saw from new recruit Marko Grujic in his side's 5-0 win over Fleetwood Town in a preseason friendly on Wednesday night.

The midfielder put in an assured 45-minute performance on his Liverpool debut and found the back of the net with just 18 minutes on the clock after a composed finish. Other goal-scoring contributions from youngster Ben Woodburn, Lucas Leiva and two from Roberto Firmino completed the rout over the League One outfit.

Grujic joined from Red Star Belgrade in January for £5.1 million before he was loaned back to the Serbian side for the rest of the season. And Klopp feels the 20-year-old Serbia international still has room for improvement despite his impressive start.

"There is a lot to develop physically and, of course, in the football parts," Klopp said. "He scored a goal in his first game in the first situation -- it's a dream.

"You saw it, in a friendly game not often a player celebrates like him but obviously it was a big moment. It was nice to see. We are ready to work with the boys, they will improve -- and they have to improve -- but for the first game it was absolutely fine."

On his side's showing at Highbury Stadium, the German boss added: "We have to work, that's clear. I saw a few good things, chances we created and a few good defensive actions, and good individual performances from one or two players. In the first half especially, I was not happy with the team play because we could have done better and we should try to do better.

"In a game like this, if the only situations you have are because of the individual quality of the player then something is wrong. Like we scored the goals in the second half -- it was a nice pass, a good run, another nice pass and an easy goal. That's how football should work. We did better in the second half. In the first half we had our chances but it was not that clear and the goalkeeper made a few good saves. It was absolutely OK.

"But in the preseason you really have to fight against the intensity of training in the games, that's really important. I think we can do better. We have to learn because we will not have easy games in the Premier League, so we have to create situations where it really doesn't feel easy for the boys.

"In games like this, against a team like Fleetwood, there are a few difficult moments and you have to be ready to find a solution. Sometimes we had a solution, sometimes not -- 5-0 at the end, everything is OK."

^ Back to Top ^