Not for the first time under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool are reaping the rewards of their teak-tough mentality.
Having looked so far adrift of a top-four place in mid-March, a confidence-shot, injury-hit squad raged against the dying of the light in the last two months.
With 10 games left, the Reds rallied and eventually took 26 points from the final 30 on offer to pull something tangible from the wreckage of a car-crash season.
Eight wins in that 10-game unbeaten run helped haul Liverpool over the line and into third at the 11th hour.
And given the obstacles that were strewn in their path this season, that has to represent a success.
"From outside you cannot really understand because we are just Liverpool we have to perform, we have to become champions, or whatever," Klopp said in his final post-match press conference of the season.
"But is was just not possible this year so we have to fight through. In the harder moments you can learn the most."
Klopp and his staff will now be afforded some much-needed and well-deserved time off before the plot to once more topple Manchester City begins.
Having battled with Pep Guardiola's side for most of the last three years, that challenge is nothing new.
But Klopp will have to box clever later this year as a lengthy injury list begins to subside at Anfield this pre-season.
The anticipated returns of Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez - players Klopp refers to as his "first transfers" this summer - will add a new dimension to a depleted centre-back department.
Going forward, however, Liverpool's recruitment team will need to work hard to ensure they supply Klopp with exactly what he needs.
And given the German has secured Fenway Sports Group the trappings of Champions League football, the Americans - whose Super League plans still leave a sour taste in fans' mouths - may feel they have a duty to back Klopp significantly this summer.
If Liverpool are armed with Champions League football and RedBird Capital's 10 per cent - and near £540m - investment in the FSG portfolio is in place, what will be possible for them when the window opens?
At an early glance, it appears as though they are in need of additions through the spine of the team.
Defence
The big issue for Liverpool this summer is just how they go about patching up their decimated defensive ranks.
Fittingly, in a perverse way, the Reds ended the season with not just their three main senior defenders sidelined, but also their mid-season deputies in Ozan Kabak and Ben Davies.
The two defenders who were signed to help ease a shortage only added to the headache in the closing stages of the campaign.
Instead, Klopp was forced to select a 20th different partnership of the season in the form of Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams.
The 2020/21 campaign represents a breakthrough one for both and Klopp's assertion that they will have "proper careers" as a result of their efforts this term is correct.
Liverpool, though, will need more than temporary sticking plasters to stitch their gaping centre-back wounds.
Kabak is available at £18million following the conclusion of his loan deal this month.
With his parent club, Schalke, in disarray both on and off the pitch, however, Liverpool could yet test their resolve with a lower offer.
The ECHO understands that between four and five centre-back options have been seriously considered by those that matter.
Kabak is included in that shortlist, but it is believed that RB Leipzig's Ibrahima Konate is the frontrunner at this point.
A reported buyout clause of £36m could be enough to bring the France Under-21 international to Anfield.
Ben White was extensively scouted during his loan spell at Leeds in the 2019/20 campaign but it's unclear how much interest remains after his first season in the top flight with Brighton.
"About the future we will talk about it after that, and decide about it after the last match," was Klopp's response to the ECHO's question on Kabak's future on Friday.
"There is obviously enough time for that, nothing else really to say about that."
Liverpool remain adamant no decision has yet to be taken on Kabak, but the young Turkey international could have played the last of his 13 games for the Reds.
Midfield
Liverpool head into the summer with a Gini Wijnaldum-shaped hole in their squad.
The departing Dutchman was given an emotional send-off at Anfield on Sunday as 10,000 fans inside the ground serenaded him for the final time.
With 51 appearances to his name this season, the Netherlands international's importance was undiminished, despite the dwindling days on his contract.
The ECHO reported back in December that Wijnaldum was eager to stay on Merseyside beyond the five years of his current contract, something which the player himself confirmed on Sunday.
"The people in Liverpool have shown me love during the five years," he said. "I will miss them.
"I hope to have played many more years for the club but unfortunately things went different."
It leaves Klopp down to seven senior midfielders for a three-man engine room and given Wijnaldum's very evident importance to Klopp, it would be a strange decision not to seek a replacement.
Brighton's Yves Bissouma is a player whose name regularly appears in connection with the Reds, but with the Oranje international still technically a Liverpool player, Wijnaldum's would-be replacements are yet to truly surface at this point.
With Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain combining for just 33 appearances, Klopp will surely need more options next term though.
Forward
Liverpool are not expecting to lose any of their famed front three this summer.
Diogo Jota's excellent first season at Anfield hints at a promising career as a long-term performer at Anfield too.
But beyond that quartet, the Reds are a little light on genuine game-changing options at the top end of the pitch.
Divock Origi's disappointing season ended with just the one goal to his name - the seventh in a 7-2 win over Lincoln in the League Cup back in September.
Xherdan Shaqiri performed marginally better, but the Switzerland international is likely to be the subject of interest this summer.
He was left out of a League Cup defeat to Arsenal at the start of October following interest from two unnamed Italian sides.
Should either Shaqiri or Origi leave then the Reds will need to bolster their attacking options.
Sales of one or both could help fund the arrival of a new frontman to provide Roberto Firmino, in particular, with more competition for the No.9 role at Anfield.
