Joe Cole says it will take him a little while to play his way into
the season.
After once again having had his preseason preparations affected by injury, Joe knows it means he now has to play catch up.
"I am four or five games behind our lads and about seven or eight games behind the Liverpool lads," he says.
"So for me to have got that game at Anfield under my belt was good, but it will take a couple of weeks for me to to get 100%.
"I haven't even played 90 minutes of a preseason yet so I will get better and the team will get better."
Despite his lack of match fitness, Joe is pleased with his first game of the season proper - and his new role on the left.
"It's much easier for me now I have a job to do and I know what I'm doing.
"I'm sure I will grow into that position as the season goes on.
"I did a job at Liverpool; I was much more defensive and let Trevor get forward a lot more on the right hand side.
"When I am fit and flying I'm sure I will prosper in that position."
Joe insists he does not mind not having a free role - nor having to perform defensive duties.
"There are only a handful of players in the world - Rivaldo, Zidane, Figo - that have a free role in the team and are told that they can do whatever they want.
"Every other player in the world has got a job to do on the pitch, defensively and in attack, so it is still a learning curve for me and I am well capable of doing it.
"I showed that; I made more tackles than anyone on the pitch and although I wasn't my usual attacking threat I thought I was reasonably tight down the left."
Of the team's performance overall, he says:
"I thought it was quite good considering we had quite a lot of players out injured.
"It was much more organised this year than it was last year; we all had jobs to do.
"And if we are going to play like we did at Liverpool against teams that are not as good quality as Liverpool, we will be beating them.
"We were unlucky and I thought we had the better of the chances in the end.
"We defended well and apart from the goals they didn't have many chances."
Despite the defeat - and a failure to break a 38 year hoodoo - he feels the match was a marked improvement on last year's 3-0 defeat.
"Last year we looked a bit ragged at times but this year the lads knew what each other was doing, and we were all pulling in the right direction," he says.
"It was a good team performance but the result wasn't good enough.
"We've gone there down to the bare bones and put in a performance but obviously we didn't get the result to go our way.
"But the lads can all hold their heads up high; we didn't get rolled over by one of the best teams in Europe.
"We have got a lot of quality young lads at the club and it was brilliant to see them get on and do well."
After once again having had his preseason preparations affected by injury, Joe knows it means he now has to play catch up.
"I am four or five games behind our lads and about seven or eight games behind the Liverpool lads," he says.
"So for me to have got that game at Anfield under my belt was good, but it will take a couple of weeks for me to to get 100%.
"I haven't even played 90 minutes of a preseason yet so I will get better and the team will get better."
Despite his lack of match fitness, Joe is pleased with his first game of the season proper - and his new role on the left.
"It's much easier for me now I have a job to do and I know what I'm doing.
"I'm sure I will grow into that position as the season goes on.
"I did a job at Liverpool; I was much more defensive and let Trevor get forward a lot more on the right hand side.
"When I am fit and flying I'm sure I will prosper in that position."
Joe insists he does not mind not having a free role - nor having to perform defensive duties.
"There are only a handful of players in the world - Rivaldo, Zidane, Figo - that have a free role in the team and are told that they can do whatever they want.
"Every other player in the world has got a job to do on the pitch, defensively and in attack, so it is still a learning curve for me and I am well capable of doing it.
"I showed that; I made more tackles than anyone on the pitch and although I wasn't my usual attacking threat I thought I was reasonably tight down the left."
Of the team's performance overall, he says:
"I thought it was quite good considering we had quite a lot of players out injured.
"It was much more organised this year than it was last year; we all had jobs to do.
"And if we are going to play like we did at Liverpool against teams that are not as good quality as Liverpool, we will be beating them.
"We were unlucky and I thought we had the better of the chances in the end.
"We defended well and apart from the goals they didn't have many chances."
Despite the defeat - and a failure to break a 38 year hoodoo - he feels the match was a marked improvement on last year's 3-0 defeat.
"Last year we looked a bit ragged at times but this year the lads knew what each other was doing, and we were all pulling in the right direction," he says.
"It was a good team performance but the result wasn't good enough.
"We've gone there down to the bare bones and put in a performance but obviously we didn't get the result to go our way.
"But the lads can all hold their heads up high; we didn't get rolled over by one of the best teams in Europe.
"We have got a lot of quality young lads at the club and it was brilliant to see them get on and do well."