Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers still believes he's the man to end the club's long wait for a Premier League title.

The Reds, still the second-most successful English side with 18 championship, have gone an astonishing 25-years since their last triumph under Kenny Dalglish.

It was their 10th title in the space of 15 years, as Liverpool continued to dominate domestically but no.19 still evades the club, as they fall further behind Manchester United on 20 titles.

The rises of Manchester City and Chelsea due to mega-rich owners have made Liverpool's rise from the ashes even harder, as they look set to miss out on the top-four for the fourth time in five years.

But that could all have been different last season. A sensational team led by Northern Irishman Rodgers lit up the league with a series of delightful attacking performances that saw them sweep away opposition through the sensational duo of Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez, helped by a supporting cast of Raheem Sterling, Steven Gerrard, Philippe Coutinho and more.

As the months of the campaign crept on, Liverpool grew further and further into the title race until with just three games left - the Reds led at the top of the table by five points.

But a loss to Chelsea and a late collapse to Crystal Palace allowed Manchester City to catch up and steal away England's biggest prize at the last minute.

After a hefty summer spending spree and a return to the Champions League, the 2014-15 season was supposed to be one in which the Reds cemented their return to the big time.

But after early exits in both European competitions, falling at the final four stage of the Capital One Cup and FA Cup and with top-four looking out of sight - Rodgers has come under a lot of pressure.

Nevertheless, he's still confident he can lead Liverpool to their long-awaited Premier League title.

"Absolutely," Rodgers responded, when asked whether he can still lead his side to glory. "When I came in here it was a long way off.

"The club was eighth and you would never have even talked about (winning the title).

"I think it’s a mark of how the club has moved forward, that there’s such disappointment around that we weren’t challenging this year.

"Of course it’s been disappointing not to have had a challenge this year.

"But when you have a sense of perspective and a sense of reality, that allows you to look forward with a greater hope that we can really push on again next season. I have absolutely no doubt it will happen.

"It is difficult but you can’t just accept it. You have to continue to fight. Where we are at now is probably par for where we sit in amongst it.

"But we can’t accept that, we have to continue to find ways to develop players, work to the idea of how the owners want to work here and find that way to break that. That’s something that I’m very hungry to do. And it’s something I won’t rest in my time here until we have."

A Liverpool side without Suarez - who left for Barcelona in the summer - and Sturridge, who has spent long periods of the campaign out through various injuries have struggled to hit the same heights of last season.

Despite a 13-game unbeaten streak lifting spirits on Merseyside, the gap between the Reds and fourth currently stands at seven points with five games remaining - including a trip to champions elect Chelsea.

But even with the disappointments of this season, Rodgers insists his Liverpool side does not particularly need a revamp to challenge for next season's title - but rather, a few smart attacking acquisitions to add to the current crop.

"It’s small in terms of what we need, but it’s key to how we can function," he said.

"If you look at our goals when I first came in here I talked about the need to improve the goal tally, and we did that.

"And now we’re back at the same situation again where I need to improve and we need find a way to do that.

"If we can do that there’s a greater base there in the team where they understand the principles of how we work.

"It will be a big summer for us to try to find the right type of player that can come into that.

"If we do that then we can get back to working how we’ve worked for a lot of the last 18 months."

Liverpool look likely to miss out on the Champions League again, which would leave a significant £40-million sized hole in Rodgers' transfer budget.

But the top-four dream is not quite yet out of the question, with Rodgers leading his side to Humberside to take on Steve Bruce's Hull City at the KC Stadium tonight with the aim of closing the gap to United to four points with four games left.

"The frustration would probably be for the first part of the season," Rodgers said.

"If you look at the second half of the season we are up there.

"I think only Arsenal have taken more points than us since the Christmas period. Following that first part, we addressed the issues and have been reasonably consistent over the course of the second half.

"The regret, if there is regret for this season, is that first half. We would need to start much better next season and that is what I will look back on when the season is finished and done."

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About the author
Charlie Malam
Digital Sports Writer at the Daily Express. First-class Staffordshire University Sports Journalism graduate. Formerly VAVEL UK's Liverpool FC editor and Deputy Editor-in-Chief. Contributor since June 2014.