Milos Kerkez shares what surprised him at Liverpool after £40m transfer

Milos Kerkez joined Liverpool from Bournemouth for £40m

Liverpool's supremacy in the Premier League last season was no fluke, and new recruit Milos Kerkez has quickly realised the sheer dedication required to maintain such a high standard of performance at the pinnacle of football. Kerkez, who joined the Reds for a hefty £40 million from Bournemouth, is currently with the squad gearing up for their opening match of the Far East tour against his old side AC Milan this Saturday in Hong Kong. The left-back has expressed astonishment at the level and vigour of the training sessions since he started integrating with his new colleagues. "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," Kerkez acknowledged. Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT "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."

Under Arne Slot's management, the team has been acclimatising to the challenging weather conditions in Asia, where they will continue their tour with a match against Yokohama F Marinos in Japan next Wednesday. "It has been really good," Kerkez said. "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." After a stint at AC Milan, where he played against Liverpool in the UEFA Youth League, Kerkez moved on to AZ Alkmaar and then spent two years at Bournemouth before Liverpool snapped him up.

Milos Kerkez has been enjoying lifee as a Liverpool player

Regarding a potential match-up with his former Serie A team, the 21-year-old said: "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." Kerkez has already turned heads with his dynamic performance in the second half of Liverpool's 3-1 friendly victory over Preston North End earlier this month, drawing particular attention on social media for an instance where the Hungarian international tried to clear the ball with his head while lying on the ground.

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"Yeah I saw that!" he exclaimed to liverpoolfc.com. "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 per cent."

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