The talismanic Uruguayan has swapped Anfield for Barcelona in a deal worth around £70m, but the Reds boss believes his side will still be in the title reckoning

Brendan Rodgers insists Liverpool will challenge for the Premier League next season despite the sale of Luis Suarez.

The Reds confirmed on Friday that they had reached an agreement for the sale of the controversial Uruguayan, after accepting an offer believed to be in the region of €88 million. 

Rodgers has already taken steps to rebalance his squad following the departure of the PFA and FWA Player of the Year, splashing out over €60m to bring Southampton duo Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert, Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Emre Can and Benfica winger Lazar Markovic to Anfield.

Preparations for the new season got off to a sluggish start with a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Brondby on Wednesday but Rodgers remains adamant his side will be in the title reckoning once again.

“The sale of Suarez does not lessen our ambition,” he told reporters after the Brondby defeat. “We thank Luis for his contribution here but we move on, looking for the right players.

“We’ll go and do our best. Our best last year nearly won us the title.

“This year, we know it’s going to be extremely competitive. Every team will strengthen and we’ll be exactly the same. But the beauty for us is that we’re a young group and we’re bringing in young players that are hungry.

“We will progress again from last season. It’s going to be a really exciting season. I’ve seen development in the players already in the short period of time that we’ve been back.

“This season we have the belief to go along with the quality.

“We want to improve and continually improve. We’re working very hard behind the scenes, as we always do, in terms of getting the best quality players into the club.”