Jurgen Klopp paid tribute to Kostas Tsimikas and Diogo Jota after both summer signings made their competitive Liverpool debuts in a thumping win over Lincoln City.
Tsimikas, who arrived from Olympiacos in August, played 90 minutes at left-back as the Reds ran out 7-2 winners in the League Cup at Sincil Bank.
Reflecting on the Greek’s performance, Klopp said: “It’s not easy in the game and [Lincoln] closed the outside [spaces].
“Kostas is a really good footballer and I think you saw a few crosses from him, things like this. But he has to adapt to what we do, that’s normal.”
The manager was also pleased with Jota, who came on as a second-half substitute five days on from his move from Wolves being confirmed.
He added: “Diogo, I only wanted to give him 30 minutes actually, so it was a little bit longer.
“He was involved and in a lot of situations I think everybody could see some glimpses of what he can do for us.
“So all fine for the first day, 100 per cent.”
It wasn’t just the contributions of Klopp’s latest additions that had him beaming at full-time, either.
The German hailed the attitude shown by his fringe players in so convincingly dispatching League One opposition, and expressed delight that they had all emerged unscathed.
He continued: “I saw a lot of good football, to be honest.
“I think everybody can take something from this game. Lincoln can take something from it because they stayed in the game, tried to do their stuff.
“But we were really, really good in a formation that we never really played together really and I liked a lot of things I saw tonight.
“The goals were really nice, the attitude was brilliant, the boys really wanted to play football and I like that.
“All three centre-halves are still fit, which is really cool, so everything fine!”
