Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has said that his players are ready for the Premier League campaign after exceeding his expectations in pre-season.

The Welshman, who has encouraged a more expansive approach since taking over from Tony Pulis in May, takes his team to Anfield in his first competitive game in charge.

"We are ready for it now," he told Stoke City Player. "We feel that we have had enough friendly games and put in the right amount of good quality work on the training pitches so as far as I am concerned it's time for the real thing.

"In terms of the work that the players have done and the progression that they have made, it really has been incredible. If anything they are ahead of where I anticipated them being at this moment in time.

"The talking stops tomorrow though and we have to go out there and put everything that we have been working on into practise. It's going to be very difficult because Liverpool are a top team, but we will go there and look to be positive."

The Potters have won just one in five games on the opening day of the season.