Our first pre-season game takes place in eight days’ time. We’re facing a Thai All Stars XI, before playing Brisbane Roar, Adelaide United, a Malaysia XI and HJK.
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Brendan Rodgers is likely to deploy a number of players throughout the fixtures – both youngsters and genuine first-teamers – but some have more to prove than others.
Below, we’ve listed five who need to take the opportunity pre-season will grant them.
Lazar Markovic
There wouldn’t be nearly as much pressure on the young Serbian winger had he not cost £20m. But he did – and for that kind of money – fans need to see results, or at least an indication of the talent we invested in. We simply didn’t see enough of it last season, but Markovic will have had time to settle in now, and providing we don’t loan him out, the easy pre-season fixtures should present him with a chance to showcase his ability. He’s got it in bundles, but he needs to be deployed in a natural attacking midfield role, and not at wing-back. We’d love to see Markovic running at defenders, but putting his head up and trying to deliver a telling pass rather than heading blindly into alleys.
