Whisper it quietly, but it is hoped Liverpool are over the worst of their troubles this season.
Back-to-back Premier League victories at Tottenham Hotspur and at home to Southampton inside the final week of pre-World Cup action has made the complexion look a lot healthier for Jurgen Klopp.
With just the sight of the Premier League table to sustain Reds fans for the coming weeks, it's an imperfect picture but one that at least shows causes for optimism on the other side of the Qatar tournament in late December.
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A seven-point gap now exists between themselves and Spurs, who occupy the fourth spot, but with a game in hand to come and the Londoners still to visit to Anfield themselves, Liverpool have managed to give themselves something to chase later in the year.
It's not quite the campaign that anyone would have imagined or hoped for when the action got underway at Fulham in early August, but there are positive signs to cling to for Klopp as he gets set for some time off.
The recent form of Darwin Nunez, in particular, is a pleasing aspect. The Uruguayan now has nine goals in his first 18 appearances for the Reds and is starting to show his class. His first-half double against the Saints on Saturday secured the points and ensured he is now registering a goal every 105 minutes for Liverpool.
Elsewhere in Klopp's frontline and Mohamed Salah is in the sort of form fans have become accustomed to seeing him in over the past five years at Anfield. The Egypt international has 14 goals for the campaign with 10 of them coming since early October. After a relatively slow start to the season, an in-form Salah will surely not have wanted the break to arrive.
Salah played virtually every minute possible for Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations at the start of the year, turning out for 750 minutes in total between January 11 and February 3 as the Pharaohs won every knockout tie on penalties before losing to Senegal in the final on spot-kicks. Many blamed Salah's fairly diminished output after AFCON - when he scored just eight of his 31 goals for the campaign - on that punishing run in Cameroon.
There will be no such concern this time for Klopp with Salah part of the Liverpool squad that will fly out to Dubai next month as part of a warm-weather training camp that includes friendlies with AC Milan and Lyon. A fully rested and recharged Salah will be vital for the Reds' push in the second half of the season.
Luis Diaz will also be expected to feature at some stage in Dubai. The Colombian international was hurt in a collision with Thomas Partey in the 3-2 loss at Arsenal in early October but has been running at the club's AXA Training Centre of late. The former Porto winger was one of the Reds' stand-out players in the early weeks of the season as they laboured, so his comeback will provide Klopp with more options across a frontline that has been stretched somewhat since both Diaz and Diogo Jota pulled up last month.
Further reasons for optimism are the expected returns of Naby Keita and Joel Matip, two more who won't be at the World Cup. Klopp's squad should have a more fulsome look to it by the time the action resumes at Manchester City in the Carabao Cup just before Christmas - provided there are no injury lay-offs in Qatar.
The impending January transfer window also offers the chance to significantly bolster the squad in the New Year. Conventional wisdom suggests the winter trading period is a sellers' market, but Liverpool have a distinguished track record when it comes to buying players at the turn of the year, particularly under Klopp.
Daniel Sturridge, Luis Suarez, Philippe Coutinho, Virgil van Dijk and Diaz have all joined the club at the midway points of a season over the last decade or so and Klopp has hinted that January might be another relatively busy month for the recruitment department.
“We are always open to these kinds of things but we don’t have to open this discussion now," Klopp said after the 3-1 win over Southampton on Saturday. "If there is something possible, we will do it. If a door opens, we are open as well.
“It is not about wanting or whatever. Of course, we want to improve the team all the time, we just believe in the training ground as well and that we can do it there. We will see what happens.”
The potential sale of the club offers some external uncertainty over what Liverpool will be able to do or what, more specifically, the Reds' owners, Fenway Sports Group, are prepared to sanction, but the Americans' hopes of any further investment are much more likely if they own a club in next season's Champions League. January could be about speculating to accumulate as far as the FSG model goes.
It's been a campaign full of wrong turns and injury concerns in the initial three months at Anfield but there is still plenty to be optimistic and excited about on the other side.
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