Liverpool head coach Arne Slot insists the future for the Premier League champions still looks bright despite their disappointing title defence.
Slot guided the Reds to a record-equalling 20th top-flight title last season having replaced Jurgen Klopp in the Anfield dugout, only for this campaign to prove much more of a struggle for the Dutchman and his players.
Fenway Sports Group splashed out an eye-watering £446m on new recruits to further improve Liverpool's squad for their title defence this time around.
But heading into Sunday's game against struggling Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield, the Reds sit outside the Champions League places even with England set to get five spots in next season's competition.
Slot's side have already lost nine times in the league this term, five more than in their entire title-winning campaign, making the visit of Spurs - live on Your Site - a must-win contest.
"We know how difficult it is to achieve what we've achieved last season," said Slot in an exclusive interview with Your Site.
"We played the League Cup final, we were very, very, very close to beating Paris Saint-Germain in the last-16 round [Champions League]. And this season, I think it's safe to say and fair to say that this season has been much more of a struggle than last season.
"But still, we are able to win things, quarter-finals of the FA Cup and in the last 16 in Europe.
"And I think we've got a squad that has shown this season already that we've improved. And these players will be able to improve much more in the upcoming years.
"So, as I said many times, the future looks bright for Liverpool."
Liverpool welcome Spurs to Anfield sitting level on points with fifth-placed Chelsea going into the weekend, while just three points behind both Aston Villa and Manchester United in the remaining Champions League spots after a recent upturn in form following a dreadful autumn that saw them lose nine times in just 12 matches in all competitions.
Despite the inconsistent Reds losing at bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers in their last league outing, though, Slot is adamant the best is yet to come from this group, especially last summer's new arrivals, as they play more together.
"We haven't been as consistent as we wanted to be," Slot admitted. "But if you look at the last two months, I think there are more positives in terms of results than negatives.
"The one that stands out for me in a negative way is our loss against Wolves two weeks ago, but we've also won quite a lot of games recently. And that tells you the improvement of the team and of the individuals.
"I'm 100 per cent sure that the best is still to come because there's individual progress to be made and it's already happening.
"The more and the longer they play together, that's been shown all over the world, successful teams usually play long together. And that's what we're going to try to achieve with these players as well."
Liverpool will be desperate to get back to winning ways on Sunday after losing 1-0 at Galatasaray in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie in midweek.
"I'm very clear what we were missing that day," Slot said. "But sometimes, as a manager, it's better to keep it for yourself or to tell your players and not tell the media because that's not always helpful to share my thoughts on that game.
"For me, it's clear what we have to improve in every game, but definitely against Galatasaray we want to have a chance of beating them."
The loss in Istanbul in many ways summed up Liverpool's misfiring campaign as the visitors squandered several openings, before going down to a set-piece goal.
"I'm not saying we are playing the best football I've ever seen, but in eight out of 10 games, maybe even more, we are better than the other team," Slot added.
"We are creating more chances than the other team. All the data is in our favour, but not always that is shown in the score.
"Even against Galatasaray, where we didn't play our best game of the season, we had multiple very good chances, but weren't able to score. It has happened too many times to us this season that the first chance we concede is immediately a goal. And that changes the momentum of the game.
"That's usually not helpful. And apart from that, there's something else I need to address with the players and we need to do better. But that's something that for now stays between the players."
Slot is well aware Liverpool are expected to beat a Tottenham team without a league win in 11 matches stretching back to December 28 at Crystal Palace and now very much embroiled in a relegation dogfight with just nine games left to play this season.
However, with the north London club now under the management of caretaker-boss Igor Tudor, the Dutchman thinks it will be harder to analyse them.
"That's for multiple reasons quite difficult," he said. "What can we expect? First of all because there's a new manager over there and he's used different tactics, different set-ups in the games he's managed.
"Second of all, eight out of 10 teams do something different against us than against the seven or eight games they've played before, because I'm analysing all these games, trying to prepare the players as well as I can.
"It's quite common that teams then come up with a different set-up than they've played in the game before."
Either way, Slot and Co know that nothing less than three points against a Spurs team who they beat to win the title last season will do this weekend.
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