There’s a clear reason why Liverpool dominated the Premier League last season, and Milos Kerkez is already discovering what it takes to maintain such consistently high levels of performance at the elite level.
The left-back, who completed a £40million move from Bournemouth earlier this summer, is currently with the Reds as they prepare for the opening game of their Far East tour in Hong Kong against his former club, AC Milan, on Saturday.
Kerkez admits he has been taken aback by the standard and intensity of training since joining his new teammates.
“Of course I know it is one of the biggest clubs in the world and when I came it just surprised me also how professional everything is and how high a level everything is,” he said.
“And that you really have to work hard every single day to compete. It’s the highest level. That surprised me but it’s also what I was looking for, so I’m really happy.”
Arne Slot’s squad hae had to adapt to the heat and humidity during their time in Asia, where the second leg will see them travel to Japan to face Yokohama F. Marinos next Wednesday.
“It has been really good,” said Kerkez. “Intense – that’s how we like to train. We are adapting to the heat still but it’s good, all the guys train hard and we are getting really ready physically.
“I think it will help definitely, when we get back to England then the lungs will open. Because we train in big heat and we know how the weather is there. So, I think it will help us a lot and we will get back really ready.”
On a reunion with AC Milan where he spent a season at the club, he added: “Obviously I played there and trained a lot with the first team, know a lot of the guys.
“It will be fun and will be good also for me to get more minutes and get adapted more to my team-mates. I’m looking forward to it – it’s my old team and I have good memories there.”
On his attempted a clearing header against Preston North End in a friendly, he said: “Yeah I saw that!
“It was a foul even before that I think, but then I saw the referee was not giving anything.
“The ball was a little bit far away, I lost balance and I had to jump somewhere. I was closer to jump with my head! I got the ball. I think it was a foul. It’s me, you know, it’s how I play – I always give 100%.”
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