The ECHO rated Phillipe Coutinho and Dejan Lovren as the Reds’ top performers on the opening day – both scoring an eight – but we wanted your views on this new look Liverpool.

Lovren was on the bench as Liverpool were thrashed 6-1 at the same venue in the final game of last season, and may have wondered if his time at Anfield was up.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers spent over £100m on signing new players last summer, however the Reds crashed out of the Champions League at the group stage and finished just sixth in the Premier League.

When asked whether the game, had been Lovren’s finest since joining, Rodgers said: “Arguably”.

“Defensively we were strong”.

Lovren started alongside regular centre-back Martin Skrtel and perhaps even put in a better performance than the Slovakia global. I was really pleased with the performance; it certainly feels better than 11 weeks ago! That was the focus of our work over the course of pre-season – making sure our defensive organisation and our pressing as a team was better, because we know we have the quality.

The Liverpool defender was booked after an aerial tussle with the Stoke City striker which prompted Potters boss Mark Hughes to call for a red card for the Croatian worldwide. It’s an exaggeratedly simple assessment, of course, but regardless of whether or not that argument has any merit whatsoever, it’s a match in which Lovren did not give the worst performance.