Virgil van Dijk admits Liverpool took important lessons from the title pain they endured in 2018-19, with the Reds determined to make amends by capturing the Premier League crown a year on.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have opened up a commanding 13-point lead at the halfway stage of the current campaign.
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They found themselves in a similar position last term, and suffered only one defeat in top-flight competition as a remarkable season delivered challenges for honours at home and abroad.
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Champions League success was savoured, but Manchester City pipped the Reds to the post on home soil by a solitary point.
The defending champions have slipped well off the pace this time around, with many suggesting that Liverpool are destined to bring a 30-year wait for title glory to a close.
Nobody at Anfield is buying into that way of thinking just yet, with there an acceptance on their part that they must fight to the finish.
Van Dijk intends to lead that charge, with the Dutch defender among those desperate to avoid seeing any more major silverware slip Liverpool’s net.
He said of the challenge facing the Reds in 2020: “We are halfway through now and we hope to finish the season on a high so for that, we have to focus on the game ahead of us.
“The whole experience from last year, doing well in the league, only losing one time, winning the Champions League, the whole experience has been helping us so far in our journey this season.
“We came very close, unfortunately, City were just a little bit better but that spurred us on to try even harder this year and so we have been winning games, grinding games out and playing good football at times.
“We enjoy the hard work too so that is very good. Hopefully, we can just keep going doing that and just be hungry for that as well.
“We should be learning from what happened last year and I feel that is definitely what has been going on.”
Liverpool have dropped just two points through 19 games in 2019-20, with it suggested that they could navigate the entire Premier League season unbeaten.
There is a long way to go if they are to emulate Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ from 2003-04, with Sheffield United presenting the next obstacle for the Reds to overcome on Thursday.