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London - Liverpool central defender Tiago Ilori is keen to stay and fight for a place in Brendan Rodgers' first team squad after spending a majority of the last two seasons out on loan in Spain and France.
The Portugal under-21 international joined from Sporting Lisbon for a reported fee of £7 million two years ago but is yet to make his first team debut, instead seeing out loan spells at Granada and Bordeaux.
"I want to play for Liverpool. I don't want to be in Liverpool just to be sitting around," the 22-year-old was quoted as saying by the Liverpool Echo after playing a half for the under-21 side in the mini-derby against Everton on Wednesday.
"My objective is the same as every other player, we all want to play so everyone's going to fight for their place," he added.
"I joined Liverpool two seasons ago to play for Liverpool, that is my number one objective so I'm going to do everything to make that happen," he added.
A injury sustained at the European Under-21 Championship prevented Ilori from joining Liverpool's summer tour and the defender is keen to make up for lost time.
"I haven't played for a few months so the most important thing for me was to get back into action," Ilori said.
"It was frustrating to get injured but at the same time I hadn't had a holiday for two years and you need some time off, so it came at the right time.
Should Liverpool retain the player, he faces an uphill battle to force his way into the side with Martin Skrtel, Dejan Lovren, Mamadou Sakho, Kolo Toure and Joe Gomez all considered ahead of him in the pecking order.
