Alexis Mac Allister has admitted he tried to "foul" Diogo Jota during the dreaded lactate test as the Argentine underwent his first day of pre-season training on Tuesday.
Liverpool confirmed the arrival of Mac Allister from Brighton last month as Jurgen Klopp finally got his hands on the 24-year-old World Cup winner. However, supporters have had to wait three weeks for Mac Allister to get to work at the club's state-of-the-art Axa Training Centre.
This is because Klopp's side didn't start pre-season training until Tuesday following June's international fixtures. But the Reds were quickly put through their paces on day one - just over a month before their opening Premier League fixture against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
The players almost instantly endured the infamous lactate test - which was won by Mohamed Salah. During the exercise, Mac Allister revealed that he tried to sabotage Jota, who returned to form at the back end of last season.
"My first highlight was when I tried to make a foul on Diogo (Jota) when we were doing the test, the lactate test," he said. "It's nice, it's nice to be here with my team-mates. Of course a tough day, but nice to start pre-season like this."
Mac Allister and the rest of his Liverpool teammates looked in fine spirits as they got back to work ahead of a gruelling pre-season campaign before the start of the competitive season. Alongside Mac Allister, the Reds welcomed another new face into the camp.
Dominik Szoboszlai, who arrived from RB Leipzig for £60m earlier this month, began life on Merseyside as he was pictured working hard alongside the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Diaz. Cody Gakpo was also present and the Dutchman spoke about the influence Szoboszlai and Mac Allister are going to have on the squad.
"Very pleased [they are here]. I think everybody knows that they are very good players and I'm really looking forward to playing with them together," the forward told the club website.
"I think first of all it’s nice to see everybody after a short break. I think everybody is excited to go again and we want to show everybody what we’ve got. I think everybody has the same mindset at the moment.
"We really want to achieve something this year again. That’s the target and we will train hard for that. We ended, I think, the campaign pretty good with a nice run of winning games, and I hope we start there again and do that for the whole season."
