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Liverpool FC will not get a new pitch this summer – despite Brendan Rodgers’ complaints about the state of the Anfield playing surface.

However, the Reds will be able to carry out significant maintenance work to the existing pitch and club officials are confident it will be in much better condition for the 2015/16 season.

Last month it emerged that Liverpool’s plans to make improvements would be hampered by building work on the £100million redevelopment of the Main Stand which will add 8,500 extra seats to Anfield’s capacity.

Fears that contractors Carillion would need to place cranes on the pitch during June have now been eased and that means the pitch can be reseeded during the off-season.

But it will only be when building work is completed in the summer of 2016 that the pitch is ripped up and Liverpool finally get the new surface and new drainage system that Rodgers believes they desperately need.

Latest pictures of Anfield stadium redevelopment:

Both the manager and the players have regularly complained this season that the state of the pitch slows down and hampers their passing game.

The current pitch is a ‘Desso GrassMaster’ – a combination of natural grass and artificial fibres. Some 20 million artificial grass fibres are injected 20cm deep and cover about 3% of the surface.

The natural grass roots intertwine with the artificial turf fibres and the result is a pitch that can take three times as much football as a normal, natural grass pitch. You don’t get clumps of turf being dislodged. The company’s list of clients also includes Wembley, Manchester City and Arsenal.

Liverpool are getting two new ‘Desso’ pitches installed at their Melwood training ground but sorting out Anfield has proved more problematic.

The current drainage and irrigation system dates back to 1998 and there is no state of the art sprinkler system.

Issues with Anfield’s previous natural grass pitch during Gerard Houllier’s reign back in the 1999/2000 season led to the club teaming up with ‘Desso’ in 2001.

Each summer since then extensive work has been carried out, with the natural grass removed and the surface reseeded. But industry experts says a pitch which was given around a 10-year life span is now 14-years-old.