As Liverpool prepare to get 2016-17 underway in earnest with their first pre-season fixture this evening, Lucas Leiva has revealed the one advantage he believes the Reds have over their rivals for the coming campaign.

Tranmere Rovers play host to Jürgen Klopp's team at Prenton Park as the German continues to lay the foundations for his first full season in charge at Anfield.

Lucas insists the former Borussia Dortmund boss hasn't been 'starting from zero' this week, though, and he expects the lessons learned since his appointment last October to pay dividends when the competitive action begins.

"The seven, eight-month period we had last year will help at the start of the season," he told Liverpoolfc.com.

"It's not starting from zero. Everyone knows how the manager wants to work, the players adapted already to the way he wants to do things and I think it could be a big advantage for us. 

"We have a difficult beginning of the season in the Premier League but we showed in the past that this team is more than capable of winning games."

Watch more from Lucas on pre-season with LFCTV GO

Defeat against Sevilla in the final game of 2015-16 meant the Reds will not play European fixtures this term.

But the longest-serving player in the squad is certain that negative can be turned into a positive, with the extra recovery time between league fixtures a huge factor, in his mind.

"It's a different season for us this year because we have no European games, we will be fresh for the Premier League games," he added.

"We play three competitions and we will try to win all [of them]. 

"If you see Leicester last year, of course they had a big advantage because they had less games and it means less injuries and [you're] fresher for the Premier League games. 

"We have a big squad, everyone wants to play, and sometimes it could mean not so many games for some players."

Lucas acknowledged that the main target for tonight's game is to build up some much-needed match fitness for the long season ahead.

But that doesn't mean that the Brazilian isn't determined to get a first win of the campaign on the board.

He said: "Tranmere is the first game after a long break, we've been training for a week and so it's not ideal in terms of fitness but the game will help us to get that back.

"That's the main thing, working on our fitness and starting to go in the right direction in terms of shape and tactics. 

"But the main thing is fitness because it's still far away from perfect. We go there to enjoy, work hard, and try to win because we always want to win."

Live coverage of Tranmere-Liverpool on LFCTV and LFCTV GO