Brendan Rodgers said the departure of Luis Suárez did not lessen Liverpool’s ambition after watching his squad lose their first pre-season game of the season 2-1 at Brondby.

Rodgers admitted the club would miss Suárez’s goals – the Uruguayan scored 31 in the Premier League last season – following his £75m move to Barcelona and was hopeful of further additions to the Anfield squad after Lazar Markovic, Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Emre Can.

“We’re working hard behind the scenes to get the best players, not a direct replacement but who can add things to our game again,” he said. ”You cannot replace any player like for like but there will be other qualities in other players. We will continue to progress.

“Luis going doesn’t lessen our ambitions – we want to continually improve. He’s a wonderful player but we will move on,” Rodgers said. “He has moved on and I will concentrate on the players we have and who have won many games without him playing.”

In the absence of his World Cup contingent at Brondby, Rodgers used his entire travelling squad and Daniel Agger was the team captain on his return to his former club.

Liverpool went 1-0 behind when Christian Norgaard produced a fine finish past Brad Jones. After a raft of changes at the interval, the Swedish teenager Kristoffer Peterson levelled within five minutes of the restart after a fine run and cross by Jordon Ibe, whose performance Rodgers described as excellent. But the visitors were beaten deep in injury time when Ferhan Hasani broke clear to score.

“I thought our senior players came through very, very well. It was a good 45 minutes each for them,” Rodgers told the club’s website. “All in all, it was a great exercise. The main idea tonight was developing our fitness levels. Towards the end of the game our legs were maybe a bit heavy. It was a worthwhile trip.”

Rodgers told the Liverpool Echo that the club had tried hard to keep Suárez but that he was determined to leave.

“We did everything we could as a club to keep Luis,” he said. “He wanted to go and play in Spain, and unfortunately when a player no longer wants to play for you, we need as a club to look at it.

“It was his decision for him to go, he’s gone to Barcelona, a club he wanted to play for and now we’ll move on.

“I’m not sure if he would have gone regardless of the World Cup. But I never felt that towards the end of the season, and likewise he never said he would give us another year either. He had obviously signed a new deal so we had that.

“But I think we have had great service out of Luis and it’s one that we can’t worry too much about now. It’s done, it’s gone and our focus is here.”

Liverpool team

B Jones (Ward, 81); Kelly (Wisdom, h-t), Ilori (Stewart, 22), Agger (Skrtel, h-t), Smith (Flanagan, h-t); Lucas (Peterson, h-t), Rossiter (Coady, h-t), Coutinho (Allen, h-t), Suso (Adorjan, h-t); Borini (Phillips, h-t), Teixeira (Ibe, h-t)