Liverpool forward Fabio Borini claims that he was forced out of former club Chelsea against then-manager Carlo Ancelotti’s will.

The 21-year-old worked with Brendan Rodgers, now his boss at Anfield, at Stamford Bridge before also playing for him while on loan at Swansea City but might not have been reunited with him had his departure from the Blues not been hastened.

The Italian explained to the Daily Mail: “Ancelotti told me that, above him, they didn’t want me in the first team.

“They said I had to play in the reserves because I hadn’t signed a new contract. It was a hard period for me and it wasn’t even the manager’s choice.”

The striker, who joined Liverpool from Roma in the summer, also expressed his hopes of playing in his desired role of centre forward instead of being utilised on the flanks as he has mainly done so far.

“I’ve always played in the middle. I find things come more naturally to me there,” Borini continued.

“If the ball drops in the box, I can sense how it will bounce, what a defender will do. I can read it early, it is a kind of instinct. When you play wide, you end up far away from the goal.”

Borini also highlighted the main difference between the English game and his experience in Serie A.

“Physically, it is harder in England,” he observed. “In Italy, we’d stand for an hour in training doing tactical work. You can’t do that here — the weather is too cold!”