Steven Gerrard believes Nigel De Jong is one of the most difficult players he has ever played against.

The MLS club announced the acquisition of the defensive midfielder from AC Milan on Wednesday and Galaxy midfielder Gerrard feels it is a great piece of business.

Liverpool great Gerrard came up against former Manchester City man De Jong during their Premier League days and has no doubt the Holland international will only improve the Galaxy playing group.

"I think Nigel can only help the team and the squad with his experience and his quality as a footballer," Gerrard said on LA's official website.

"He's been around Europe with all the big teams, he's played in big World Cup games and he's a quality footballer.

"I'm looking forward to meeting the guy and I've heard good things from (former Liverpool teammate) Dirk Kuyt and I'm looking forward to welcoming him.

"He will certainly make our 11 and our squad a lot stronger because he is one of the best at what he does which is the holding midfield position.

"He is one of the toughest opponents I've ever faced.

"Defensively he covers the ground very well, he's very aggressive, he's very physical, he picks up good positions. Any attacking player who wants to play as a number 10 against the Galaxy is going to be in for a really tough match.

"I have used to have tough and difficult battles against Nigel and he's certainly one of the toughest opponents I've faced so to bring that into our squad, I look at where we went wrong last year and defensively as a team we needed to be more aggressive and make less mistakes and Nigel will help us to be strong in that department."