Not A Bad Start To Pre-Season: Preston 0 v LFC 4

AND with that, a new season approaches.

The Reds, led out by Dan Agger, looked calm and confident against an overwhelmed Preston North End side at Deepdale on Saturday afternoon.

The game had a very ‘friendly’ feel to it which, given that this was a friendly, will probably sound slightly dumb. The fact is, though, that the game was in memory of the Liverpool and Preston legend, Bill Shankly.

It’s rare that you’ll find a bad-tempered friendly game and the goodwill, love and respect felt by both clubs toward Shankly meant that that was never going to be the case on Saturday afternoon but what we saw was a performance that the man himself would’ve been quietly confident about.

The starting 11 of Mignolet, Spearing, Agger, Toure, Flanagan, Henderson, Allen, Assaidi, Ibe, Coutinho, Borini, contained – probably – at least 6 players that wouldn’t be in most of our favoured 11s but they acquitted themselves well in the first half.

I feel that at least one or two of the starting side won’t be here by the time the season starts but seeing such an assured performance was encouraging indeed.

Agger, in particular, showed why many Liverpool fans feel he is the perfect understudy to Steven Gerrard and, while I have always championed Reina for that role, Agger’s unerring loyalty and love for the club – both shown in today’s ‘friendly’ – may well prove me wrong.

The second-half performance only improved on the first, but that undoubtedly had a lot to do with the change in the overall quality of the personnel, with the likes of Aspas, Alberto and Sterling coming on and showing real quality and perhaps giving further evidence to the idea that Rodgers may actually know how to pick a player.

With goals from Coutinho, Ibe, Sterling and Aspas providing a happy mixture of goals from local, young talent and new signings.

As for individual performances all four of the above put in impressive shifts, with Coutinho and Ibe in particular showing why both are likely to figure quite a lot for the Reds next season.
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Coutinho’s quality and the smile that is constantly on his face make him an easily likeable character and if the increasingly tedious Suarez is to leave this summer, then we will likely have a ready-made idol to pin all of our hopes upon.

As for Ibe, the youngster shows all of the promise of Sterling last season, just with a bit more bite and physical power thrown into the mix. The prospect of the two running either wing in tandem however, is likely to be a truly terrifying prospect for opposing teams as the two youngsters mature in the coming seasons.

The new signings acquitted themselves well, with Alberto and Aspas showing signs of some great forward play to come, whilst Toure was everything we would’ve expected – composed, experienced and classy. If just a little too long in the tooth to be a fixture week-in, week-out.

Simon Mignolet, on the other hand, had so little to do that I may as well have been wearing the gloves but he will find himself with tougher tests as pre-season progresses.

All-in-all, it was a good day. The sun was shining, the fans were eager (as were us all, watching at home) and the Reds came through without ever having to really exert themselves.

Once the rest of the boys are back in the frame and we’ve sorted out our remaining transfer-window activity, we will have a much better idea of whether we can expect similarly assured performances once the season begins.

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