New signing Joe Allen hopes to add his passing game to the Liverpool midfield this season.

Allen's pass completion rate of 91 per cent was better than one of Barcelona's fabled conductors, Andres Iniesta. No Liverpool midfielder managed better than 86 per cent in the same time.

"You can read stats how you like," said Allen to the Daily Mail. "It's great personally to hear those things; to be associated with those players is a dream. Xavi and Iniesta are two players I admire massively. They really inspired me to play a similar sort of football.

"If you think I'm small now you should have seen me when I made my debut (as a 16-year-old against Blackpool), you would be surprised. I was even slimmer and smaller then. When I was younger coming through it was a big issue for some people.

"I was always confident there were other aspects of my game that were better off because of my size. But there were a few doubters. I've been lucky every manager I've played under at Swansea has been someone who has played the style of football that suits me down to the ground."