Liverpool Transfer News: Summer Signing Simon Mignolet Ready to Challenge Pepe Reina for Starting Spot

Jul 11, 2013 12:35 AM EDT

Liverpool's summer signing Simon Mignolet said he is ready to compete for a starting place with Pepe Reina and believes he can prove himself to be the man worthy of the No.1 jersey at Anfield.

Brendan Rodgers brought in the Belgian international to Liverpool to provide competition to Reina and Mignolet is ready to embrace the challenge head-on.

"Competition is going to be in every single club," he told reporters.

"I had competition back in Belgium with the local team, I had big competition at Sunderland where there was Craig Gordon, Keiren Westwood and other international goalkeepers and I had big competition with the Belgium national team. So that's not going to change.

"Everywhere you go, especially when you go to a bigger club, there's always going to be a fight for places and definitely when you're a goalkeeper because only one can play.

"But it's a challenge. It can only make you better and make you stronger in the end. I can just do my best, train as well as I can, and in the games that I get a chance I will show what I'm worth.

"I just look at myself, getting myself back fit after the break. I only had three weeks off when the season finished with Belgium.

"I was still in good shape when I arrived here and now the only thing I can do is train hard and do my very best in training and the games coming up.

"I'll just do my best to play every week. I'm not here to be sitting and resting. I'm here to come and progress, and play. The only thing I can do is train hard, show the manager that I'm ready for it and in the games when I get my chance I have to be there and be ready."

The goalkeeper has been stellar for Sunderland over the past couple of seasons in the English Premier League, but admitted playing with Liverpool was a jump up.

"For me it's a big step forward and I'm very pleased to be training with the team for two weeks now," he added. "I spoke to the manager and he told me that it's going to be a big step forward.

"We play the first game on Saturday and after that, with the more we do on tour, I'll see how big a step forward it is for me.

"At the moment, it's only training and I have to get used to the players and the way of playing. Once we get going I'll know what it's going to be like.

"When I came in for the first couple of training sessions, I saw that everybody is very hungry and ambitious to get going, everybody wants to take a step forward and push on into the top four.

"There's big ambition around the club. I also noticed that from the conversations I had with the goalkeeping coach and the gaffer. I saw that they are very ambitious, want to get forward, winning trophies and getting into the top four."

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