“In a football sense, we are, of course, glad to be back here for a competitive game. It has been a while, of course, but there is nothing like Anfield under the lights and we are all looking forward to getting our campaign under way this evening.
“We know that this will be a tough beginning for us, and if we needed any reminder of that, then the FA Community Shield last weekend provided it.
“Crystal Palace, remember, were the team that finished 12th in the Premier League last season, and you saw at Wembley the quality that they have in their team.
“I expect similar from Bournemouth, who finished ninth in the table last year and who have a lot of very good players and, in Andoni Iraola, a very good manager too. We welcome them to our home, of course.
“From our perspective, there have been a lot of positives from our pre-season, as well as a few areas we clearly need to improve in.
“I think you saw during our tour of Asia, against Athletic Club and against Palace, that we are able to create more chances, that we are more comfortable in possession and more dominant with the ball.
“Last season we had a lot of ball possession but that didn’t always lead to promising situations. Now, we are better in creating and getting promising situations than we were, in my opinion, throughout the whole of last season.
