Jurgen Klopp admits Liverpool’s quadruple hunt has led to a hangover this season.
Saturday’s trip to Brighton & Hove Albion sees Klopp’s side battling to make up a seven-point shortfall to the final Champions League qualification spot.
The Reds’ downturn since the start of the current campaign is in stark contrast to just 12 months ago, when they were vying for all four trophies.
Klopp has acknowledged those demands, which saw his team play 63 games in all competitions last season, has had a knock-on effect in the short-term.
But the Liverpool manager still backs his squad to recover from their malaise.
“We can say that now but there was no book written about it,” said Klopp.
“There was no data about it, there’s nothing about it because nobody played this amount of games ever before. Maybe they played it but not for other reasons.
“But we won finals and all these kind of things, so we were high-flying. We came on holiday with eyes like this still ‘where’s the next game’ and then ‘Oh, no game’. That’s how it is.
“It doesn’t mean we don’t want to be successful. Next time we can sort things. Hopefully it happens again with a different outcome then we know about it and can write a book about it. But this time so far, it was not.
“Of course there were things [now]: the football in moments looked different, I know, but I can promise you it’s not because the boys or I don’t want it. It’s 100% not the case.
“If that would be the case we could sort that immediately – and we sorted it, by the way.
“We speak about it like we are bottom of the table. We are not. We drew a cup game against a team (Wolves) who did well.
“Yes, they scored a goal which was disallowed, I’m not sure for the right or wrong reasons, but that’s why we play the game again.
“We had chances, we could’ve scored before these kind of things, they had moments but it’s no doubt that we could’ve won this game.
“What I said after the game, we didn’t lose but it feels like it.
“Everybody looks at you and you realise ‘Oh my god, Liverpool…’ and it’s not exactly what you want. But we are not just here for the sensations and great moments.
“There are times to get through, you learn from it and you go again for everything. That definitely will happen.”