Brendan Rodgers claims his Liverpool side have finally proved they are not a one-man team reliant on Luis Suarez.
Rodgers will be delighted to welcome back Suarez from his 10-game ban for biting after Saturday's home match with Southampton.
Suarez scored 30 goals last season before his suspension began and Rodgers claims Liverpool's fine form without the Uruguay striker shows they are not over-dependent on him.
The Reds have won seven and drawn two of their nine games during Suarez's banishment and Rodgers is pleased the team have coped so well without their talisman.
The Liverpool manager claims their record without Suarez is "huge credit to the team in terms of how well they have done, and how well they have focused.
"Luis is a top player, but we have continued to work well and get the results. But, make no mistake, it's going to be great to have a player of that quality back.
"I think we've shown we're more than a one-man team, if people said that. Don't get me wrong, it is teams that win titles and trophies, but within that team you need top players."
Daniel Sturridge has helped ensure Liverpool have not missed Suarez - the England striker has scored 10 times in his last nine Premier League games.
Sturridge will equal John Aldridge's 1987 feat of scoring in the Reds' first five league games if he nets against Southampton, but Rodgers says the 24-year-old's success is down to his team-mates.
"Our focus is about the unit and the whole team," said Rodgers. "Luis is a player within that team, who is a special talent.
"But everyone has a function and his job is to score goals. He did that last year.
"Likewise it has been Daniel Sturridge's job. He has come in and done brilliant, but Daniel will be the first to tell you as well that without the support of his team-mates, he wouldn't have been the success that he's been so far.
"So I think we have probably shown, and hopefully put to bed, this idea that we're a one-man team because we're certainly not."
Southampton were the last team to beat Liverpool - back on March 16 - and Rodgers claims his troops' 13-match unbeaten run since then shows they are developing some consistency.
The Northern Irishman says this is breeding confidence in his league leaders and he can see them growing as a team.
"We're going through something here that probably hasn't happened at this club for a few years," said Rodgers.
"We're having consistency so that breeds confidence in itself. The players show great confidence every day and go into the games showing that.
"It's also something that over time, that confidence will improve and will get better. At this moment people will talk about the season being in its early stages, but the race is running.
"You don't get these games back. We're up and running and living in the reality and the reality is that the team is doing well. I just think the consequence of our work and the results will improve that confidence as we go on."
Rodgers also joked that he hopes Rickie Lambert won't score on Saturday as a thank-you for the Liverpool boss congratulating him on his England debut.
Rodgers sent Lambert a fax ahead of his first Three Lions appearance against Scotland last month, because he knows the Southampton striker is a Scouser and a boyhood Liverpool fan.
"I'm a big admirer of Rickie's," said the Anfield manager. "I sent him a message, a fax, when he made his England debut because I know he's a big Red.
"I sent it on behalf of the club and all Kopites. He's a Kirkby boy and I was just wishing him well and saying we were all proud of him playing for England. Hopefully, now he won't score against us!"
Lambert was on Liverpool's books as a kid, and Rodgers said: "People can look back now and say the club made a mistake letting him go, but there might have been something at the time that was a factor.
"Rickie might not have been interested in football or there might have been something else. I'm just pleased he's finally getting the recognition he deserves."
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