Rodgers: We've made Europe take notice

The Premier League runners-up finished their 2013-14 season with a 4-0 friendly win over Shamrock Rovers on Wednesday.

It completed a campaign which saw Liverpool finish two points behind champions Manchester City, and the recipients of praise for their attacking approach.

Rodgers, who said his 'overriding feeling is one of pride', believes the club have reestablished themselves as one of the best.

"The restoration when I came in two years ago was to get Liverpool back to become one of the leading clubs in Europe," he told the club's website after the win over Rovers.

"And over the last two years, the identity of the team and the style of football has made the British league and the European leagues sit up and take notice.

"This season we've had some incredible performances and we have recovered the soul of the club again for the supporters.

"They feel pride and enthusiasm in the club and they have a spring in their step because we are heading back in the direction of where Liverpool Football Club should be, and that's the best."

A loss to Chelsea and a draw at Crystal Palace, which came after they gave up a three-goal lead, proved costly for Liverpool.

But Rodgers said the heartbreaking title loss would only help his team and believes their belief will have grown after going so close.

"The psychological impact is only a positive one," he said.

"We will enter into next season with the belief that we can win the title.

"In our last 14 games, we won 12 and claimed 37 points out of 42 - that's a remarkable statistic for a very young team.

"The last game was a difficult game because the feeling you have in that situation is that Manchester City would win their game.

"We've gone remarkably close this year. We now expect next year and will have the belief to go one better.

"It won't be any harder because it's a tremendously difficult league and all the teams will strengthen, but so will we and we'll get better."