Alisson Becker has praised Liverpool's new centre-backs Jeremy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo as he outlined the ambition to earn silverware this season under new boss Andoni Iraola.
The Reds completed their pre-season preparations with a solid 2-0 victory over Italian side Como at Anfield on Sunday evening.
Jacquet and Araujo impress on debuts
Jacquet caught the eye during an impressive first-half showing on his debut outing since arriving for £60million from Rennes in the summer, and scored the second goal after Cody Gakpo had opened the scoring.
Araujo, signed on loan from Barcelona, made his bow when replacing the Frenchman at half-time and helped Liverpool keep only their second clean sheet of the warm-up programme.
Alisson said: "Both of them played really, really well. Jeremy had a great first half, great on the ball, great defending and controlling the space in behind and in front of him as well. A great performance."
"Ronald as well had a really good game in the second half. It is really good to have a strong centre-back to help the team in depth as well. That's what we need if we want to compete for trophies this season."
Competition for starting roles
Jacquet and Araujo will now both compete for a starting role alongside skipper Virgil van Dijk for the Premier League opener at Newcastle United next Sunday.
Despite the disappointing previous season and the changes behind the scenes with the arrival of Iraola and his new coaching staff, Alisson believes Liverpool have the capability of challenging for honours this campaign.
"I am really excited and looking forward, but (with) feet on the ground," he said. "We dream big but we work hard. That's the thing we have to do."
"We still have things to improve and don't have consistency for the full game, but we are going to get there."
Confidence boost after friendly defeats
The win came after successive friendly defeats against Leeds United and Monaco in which Liverpool surrendered two-goal leads.
Alisson said: "We've not had great results in pre-season. Everybody know how tough it is to play during pre-season."
"We are training really hard in the last weeks. All the lads did a great job, tonight was good for us to get a little bit of confidence. We know how important it is to get a win with a clean sheet as well."
Speaking to LFC TV, Alisson added: "They (Como) played really well and it was a tough game for us. We managed to not give away too many easy chances. The chances we gave, we had a player in the challenge and that's important, it makes my job easier."
"And up front we were clinical with the finishes and getting the win was the important thing for us."
