Adam Lallana names the Liverpool star he hates training against

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Adam Lallana can’t say enough nice things about Liverpool and England teammate Nathaniel Clyne. The duo, who holidayed together in the United States this summer, also played together at Southampton and are definitely excited about the prospect of being reunited on Merseyside.

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Clyne signed for the Reds in a £12.5m deal last week (via BBC Sport), and could make his debut alongside Lallana in six days time when our pre-season campaign begins. The latter is delighted about the signing of the highly-rated full-back, but admits he’s not looking forward to facing him in training again, such are his qualities.

“For me, playing against him in training, I’d never want to be playing against him,” he said.

“He’s very aggressive and he’s even added goals to his game, he obviously scored here at Anfield the first game of last year. I’m sure the fans have had brief moments where they’ve watched him play, especially for England, he came on the scene last season and has done very well and is a regular member of the squad now.

“He’s a very good defender. He’s a right-back so his main attribute should be defending and there’s not many players I see get by him, take him down the outside.

“I saw Clyney in America for a few days and we were chatting there about the possibility of him signing. I think he’s a great signing for the club.

“I played with him for two or three years at Southampton and he’s a solid right-back – you know what you’re going to get from him every game. He’s only going to get better playing here with better players around him and I’m sure the manager will have his ideas and want to improve him even more.”

Lallana is hoping to make a good impression in our pre-season campaign. He missed our tour matches last year due to injury, something which disrupted much of his first season at Anfield, and is eager to make up for lost time.

Despite an unkind fixture list, which includes several challenging away matches to start the season, Lallana is hopeful that he and his teammates can get straight into the swing of things and start the campaign well.

“I missed pre-season last season with injury and I was disappointed to get off to a slow start,” he explained. “This year I’m back raring to go and it was quite a short summer because of the England games we had. But there’s a good feel around the place and a few of the new signings are here so we’re looking forward to getting working.

“It wasn’t the only injury I had, I was stop-start probably three or four times throughout the season, which any player will tell you doesn’t help. Hopefully I can get a good base under my belt this pre-season and when we tour and start the season firing.

“I feel really confident, really optimistic. I feel that the group of players that we’ve brought in and added to is only going to make everyone up their game. There’s going to be good competition for places, which I think is healthy in a good team. I’m just looking forward to getting going now.”

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