Former Liverpool striker Ryan Babel believes his old club are in a good position.
Babel is impressed by new signings Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
"With the signings they're very promising," said Babel on Talksport. "At the same time we know the intensity and how Jurgen Klopp overall wants to play, it's always a question to see if the players can adapt to the playing style.
"They played a friendly [on Monday], I haven't seen it but I got the notifications on my phone and they conceded a few goals in the last part of the game - 4-4.
"I think there's still a lot of work to do but again, I'm a Liverpool fan, I have good hopes. I trust Jurgen Klopp. I know that he knows last season was of course not good enough, so this season they definitely have to step it up."
Babel also spoke of former Liverpool teammate Steven Gerrard's move to Al-Ettifaq.
Initially of course, it is surprising [that he went to manage there]," says Babel. "Overall if you look at especially English managers, they tend to stay in England, but at the same time I feel like we are entering in a new wave of new managers, right? Young managers, former players.
"Look, at the end of the day we don't know if Steven Gerrard had a lot of possibilities at this very moment, but I feel like as a manager if you're out of the picture for too long maybe the door is slowly getting shut on you for these types of opportunities. Maybe it was one of those things he felt like 'hey, I want to stay busy, I'm still young, this is right now the opportunity I've got so let's grab it'."