Joe Allen has claimed that Liverpool have become a better team since selling talisman Luis Suarez to Barcelona in the summer.
The Uruguayan scooped double Player of the Year awards after his 31-goal season last term helped the Reds finish within one point of the Premier League title.
With Daniel Sturridge - who netted 24 goals last season - also missing through injury, Liverpool endured a stuttering start to the campaign after picking up £75m for Suarez.
However, Brendan Rodgers's side have lost just one of their last 14 league outings, and Allen says that the team have learned to cope without the South American hitman.
"At the start of the year we talked about how losing Suarez was going to have an affect but now we have overcome that," he is quoted as saying by Sky Sports News.
"It took us a little bit of time to overcome that, because the injury problems we had were not ideal.
"We are certainly back up to that level and, if anything, with the different system we play this season we might even have taken a step forward."
Liverpool sit sixth in the Premier League table, two points adrift of the top four.
