BRENDAN RODGERS insisted there were plenty of positives for Liverpool to take from last night’s 2-1 friendly defeat to Roma at Boston’s Fenway Park.
The Reds paid the price for a couple of defensive lapses in the second half as Charlie Adam’s late strike was in vain. However, Rodgers was impressed by the efforts of his weakened line up against the Serie A outfit.
Midfielder Lucas Leiva got another half an hour under his belt as he continued his comeback from injury.
“I was really pleased with the players and I’ve got no complaints,” the manager said.
“Roma are ahead of us in terms of preparation having played four or five more games.
“We had a lot of young players out there gaining some great experience.
“The most important thing for us was our physical conditioning and that step up In quality tonight was perfect for what we needed.
“Our pressing from the front was very good and the goal we scored was excellent. We showed good patience moving it from one side to the other.
“We need to improve at the back as we defended poorly for their goals but it’s that stage where you concede goals you wouldn’t usually concede.
“In the second half I thought Lucas was fantastic with some of his passing. Overall there were a lot of positives to take from the game and it puts us well on the road to being ready for the start of the season.”
Liverpool move on to Baltimore tomorrow and Rodgers is likely to play a number of the club’s England internationals and new boy Fabio Borini against Tottenham in Saturday’s final tour friendly.
“In the next couple of days I’ll assess them but some of them will be involved with one eye on the Europa League game,” he said. “Once we introduce a lot of our quality players back into the group then we will see a step up in the final third. We will be better with the ball. But all the boys are working really well and they have taken on board what we’ve asked of them.”
