Brendan Rodgers has warned Liverpool's Europa League rivals that they have yet to see the best from his side this season.

The Reds return to European action this evening when they take on Besiktas in the first leg of their last-32 tie at Anfield, having been forced to settle for a place in the competition following their Champions League group-stage exit.

A 1-1 draw at Basel sealed Liverpool's fate last autumn at a time when their form was causing them real problems on all fronts, including in the Premier League where they slipped well off the pace.

However, Rodgers's charges have significantly improved since then as new faces have slowly bedded in, and the Northern Irishman believes that his side are now ready to push on and achieve success in the competition.

"Certainly it wasn't the real Liverpool earlier on in the season," he is quoted as saying by the Liverpool Echo. "I was obviously hopeful that we could still be in the Champions League at this stage but it's not to be. We're still in a very good competition, we'll attack these games in this competition like we have those in the last few months.

"We'd put in two years of work building to get through to that stage and our objectives from me personally were very clear, we wanted to make the Champions League. Of course to arrive in there not having the team and the way of working to go and play that way, it was frustrating.

"But it's a great learning curve for us and I hope we can be in it for other years to come consistently and hopefully we can be a lot more stable and consistent with our performance."

Should Liverpool go on to win the Europa League, they will automatically be granted a place in next season's showpiece Champions League.