Brendan Rodgers released his new and improved attacking trio for the first time last night, when Liverpool sailed past their Greek opponents, Olympiacos , 1-0. The new brand of attacking play included Raheem Sterling and Markovic flanking either side of Daniel Sturridge. The attacking dynamics are frightening to look, with the trio having speed, dribbling and flair all to their names, and the most impressive part of the story is that all three have age on their sides with Sterling only 19 years old, while new signing Markovic is 20 years of age, with the league`s second top scorer last season, Daniel Sturridge, only 24. To add to this, Rodgers has strength in-depth, a key factor that wasn`t at his deposal last season. Last season Liverpool`s back up to the attackers were Victor Moses, Luis Alberto, and Iago Aspas. For the campaign which commences within a month, Rodgers has the likes of Lallana, Coutinho, Ibe, Markovic, Sterling, Borini, Sturridge and Lambert all vying for a place in the squad, while if rumours are to be believed, Rodgers will add a further two attackers to that list.
"I've seen a difference in Daniel since he came back," said the boss. "He has obviously got confidence from the World Cup and his season last year.
"I think he's ready to take on the mantle. He got 20-odd goals last season so he's a striker of great value.
"Markovic will only get better and better. He showed great strength when he burst through and hopefully later on when he picks up that speed and sharpness in his game, he'll go on and finish that.
"We've got good speed. Raheem Sterling is always a threat - he's a joy to look. I thought those three were really exciting."
"I see it in the players that scored 70-odd goals last season. It's very simple. Luis Suarez isn't a Liverpool player so I don't need to talk about or reference Luis Suarez.
"I'll just worry about the players I have, who showed in enough games last season and the season before, when we didn't have Luis, that we can score goals. That won't be an issue."
"First and foremost, I'm evaluating the fitness of the players," he continued. "That's the key for us and the objective at the moment.
"But I was delighted with the team. As the pre-season goes on, we'll get sharper in our movements and some of our passing.
"But at this moment, we're really building up the resistance of the players, their game time duration and getting minutes under their belt.
"I was very pleased; in the first half we started the game very well, our passing was crisp and precise. We scored a very good goal and we looked a real threat at the top end of the field, both in combination play and on the counter-attack.
"I was also very pleased with how we defended. We had good shape early in pre-season. We made changes in the game and the young players had some minutes on the field.
"Some of our players who had only been back for a week or so got 45-60 minutes. Overall, I was delighted."