"There were ups and downs really," he admitted. "I had some great times there but also some hard times and that was with not playing, which was a difficult period.
"That's the way it goes sometimes and football changes so much nowadays.
"I'm glad I started there and the coaches I had over the years helped me to progress to where I am today.
"But the friendly is certainly one I'm looking forward to because it's not very often you get the opportunity to go back and play against your former club.
"Hopefully it will be a good game and we can get the right result which is important because winning breeds confidence," he told liverpoolfc.tv.
"If we can win that it will give us a boost going into Saturday's game with Norwich.
"It's a good opportunity for us to play someone different.
"We want to get back in the Champions League so this game will be a good test for us and different to the Barclays Premier League."