Roy impressed with Aqua

Roy Hodgson is confident Alberto Aquilani can have a big impact on Liverpool's fortunes this season after admitting the talents of the Italian have caught his eye in Switzerland.

Aquilani is one of only a handful of senior players to have taken part in the Reds' training camp in Bad Ragaz, although a minor knock sustained in the friendly draw with Grasshoppers meant he returned to Melwood early.

Nonetheless, Hodgson confesses he has been encouraged by what he's seen at the Swiss retreat and believes the midfielder is eager to make up for lost time after injuries restricted him to just 26 appearances during his debut season at Anfield.

"There has never been any question about Alberto's talents," said the manager. "It is obvious for all to see that he is a gifted footballer.

"What has been the major disappointment for him is that he arrived here with an injury that took an awfully long time to clear up.

"It was only really towards the end of the season when he started to show anything like the kind of form you would have expected from the outset and that will have frustrated him.

"He has got to use this pre-season to put all those disappointments behind him and get his confidence up but what I have seen during the last three weeks has been encouraging.

"You can see every day he is working hard to improve his fitness. He clearly wants to get back to the levels he was showing before he came here and that is a positive sign."

Hodgson confirmed he will handle the likes of Aquilani with caution during Liverpool's pre-season programme and is keen to stress the dangers of demanding too much from players too early.

"We have to remember that it is going to take some time to get to where we want him," he added. "We must not ask too much from him too soon.

"I would rather be putting him on the field and taking him off too early rather than keeping him on five or 10 minutes too long, which would mean he misses a training session in the future.

"We have done a lot of tactical work but most of the work that we have been doing has been with the Australian fitness people. We are really only scratching the surface.

"But in that scratching the surface, Alberto has come out of it very well, as has Lucas, who is really the only person who can say he is a genuine Liverpool regular."