Jurgen Klopp claims that injuries dented Liverpool’s Premier League title bid.
Champions League qualification remains firmly in the Reds’ hands but had previously been in the hunt for the title alongside champions-elect Chelsea.
That momentum was disrupted by setbacks to Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson while Sadio Mane missed a month to play at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Antonio Conte’s side currently sit nine points clear with a game in hand on Liverpool, who head into their final five matches of the current campaign.
But Klopp believes the Anfield club would have been able to last the distance were it not for a series of ill-timed injuries to influential figures in recent months.
He said: “I think we can all agree that if we could have played our first 12 or 13 for the whole season, and we are only six, seven, eight points away from the very interesting region of the table, then it’s not unlikely that it could have worked.
“But it’s not important now because we don’t know for sure. It’s not allowed to look back. We have to find a lineup solution for the next game.
“What I can say is that we really need all our passion in a situation like this. I said a few days ago that it’s not about playing the best football, it’s about getting results.
“Most of the time it works if we’ve got a good plan but the passion is really important. We need all the passion from the stands. It’s Anfield.
“We’ve had two away games. It feels like we last played here eight weeks ago or something, but it was only two or three weeks. Now we are back.”