It is inconceivable for the older English football fan to comprehend but next May will mark the 20th anniversary of Liverpool's last league title.A generation of supporters who were brought up on the Mersey club dominating, not only at home but also abroad, has seen two decades pass - and a whole new generation of fans raised - for whom Liverpool are an also ran.
Last season was a pleasant surprise, not only for Liverpool fans but for those neutrals who remember with fondness those halcyon years of being entertained by teams assembled by Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish.
An unexpected second place, that memorable 4-1 humiliation of champions-to-be Manchester United at Old Trafford and a late surge towards the top of the table held the hint of a corner being turned by Rafa Benitez and his squad.
So, one close season later, is this the campaign that will finally see Liverpool emerge from two decades of under achievement and add to their current tally of 18 league titles?
Put simply: No.
And a couple of relatively insignificant pre-season friendlies involving Liverpool and United, at least one of the five teams who will start the season harbouring dreams of a championship, illustrate why.
The two Lancashire rivals played friendlies last week - United against Valencia on Wednesday; Liverpool playing Atletico Madrid on Saturday - and the media buzz at both games centred around defensive crises that were afflicting both managers.
In the case of Benitez, an early injury to Jamie Carragher against Atletico saw him remove the former England defender as a precaution and left him playing with the untried and overwhelmed pairing of Danny Ayala and Mikel San Jose in the heart of his defence.
For Sir Alex Ferguson, his defensive "crisis" meant he had to resort to playing Valencia with a centre half partnership of automatic England choice Rio Ferdinand and Jonny Evans - a defender who would walk into probably half the Premier League's starting line-ups. Oh, and for good measure, Republic of Ireland regular John O'Shea, a versatile defender who was playing in a Champions League Final three months ago, watched from the bench.
It was a startling illustration of the disparity in the depth of the two squads.
Here is another one.
Last season, champions United used 33 players in league games, Liverpool used 23.
Admittedly, you only need 11 to win a game (and, as a digression, isn't it incredible to recall Aston Villa winning the 1981 title using FOURTEEN players all season while playing 42 games instead of the current 38?).
But what that superior depth of squad does is not only give United insurance against injuries, it also permits Ferguson to rest players, thus reducing their exposure to the risk of injury as well as keeping them fresh for Champions League ties, for those all-or-nothing league games.
Given that the area in which Liverpool lost the title last season was in home draws against Stoke, Fulham, West Ham and Hull (eight points dropped, twice the margin by which United beat them) that sort of quality in depth is not a luxury for Benitez ... it's a must.
Instead, the summer has seen his squad weakened by the departure of Xabi Alonso whose true worth, one suspects, may only be appreciated now he has left.
With Alonso gone, Benitez retains the services of two undoubtedly world class performers in Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres but, given the issues outlined above, the strategy of resting them from games, even home games against apparently weaker opponents, is a risky one.
Benitez moved to replace Alonso with highly-regarded Alberto Aquilani of Roma but the Italian midfielder, emerging from three injury-plagued seasons, is already out until October as he recovers from ankle surgery.
Further bad news has come in the fact that Spain's Confederations Cup involvement saw Liverpool's large Iberian contingent return late to pre-season and has seen the squad in general lag behind the stage they were at in their preparations 12 months ago.
After the 2-1 defeat by Atletico, Benitez admitted: "It's totally different this pre-season, in terms of the players' fitness. We have some players who needed more time because they were playing in the Confederations Cup in South Africa - a VERY important tournament."
Even allowing for the dripping sarcasm of Benitez's reply, you have to feel sorry for the manager.
Torres, in particular, looked a yard of his lethal sharpest against his old club on Saturday. No Alonso, no Aquilani, injuries at the back and the Spanish contingent lacking in match fitness.
If Liverpool are going to win the title, it is certainly going to be with a late rush rather than sprint out of the start gate.
Which leads, neatly, to the other major problem dogging Benitez this season, as it has all recent seasons - that of finances.
Benitez desperately needs to add defensive cover this week and Hull's Michael Turner and Portsmouth's Sylvain Distin are the two primary points of his interest.
Yet, it is unclear whether or not the club's beleaguered American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett will make funds available before the window closes in three weeks.
Similarly, it is safe to assume that Benitez will want - and need - to add fresh blood in the January window but the club's ownership and financing issues are so complex that there is absolutely no guarantee that the manager will be in a position to do so.
"It is something I have to talk with the club about," said Benitez on Saturday. "We have some ideas and we have to discuss these ideas. We will see. We are talking about these things. We are working always. We try to be ready just in case (we can sign someone), but you never know. It depends on the prices.
"We have to work with the players we have at this moment and keep working with the scouting department. The main thing for me is we have one week to work and prepare the players."
Sadly for Benitez and Liverpool, the players - or, more accurately, the squad he has "at this moment" - is not good enough to win the Premier League.
