Former Liverpool attacker El Hadji Diouf has said that the Reds "bottled" the chance to win last season's Premier League title despite losing just once all campaign.

Jurgen Klopp's side won 30, drew seven and lost just one of their 38 league matches last term, but the Merseyside giants finished one point behind Manchester City in the table.

Diouf, who represented the club between 2002 and 2005, has hit out at his former side for failing to land the title last term, and the 38-year-old believes that City are "the team to beat once again".

"I don't see [Liverpool] doing as well as they did last season," Diouf told FourFourTwo. "They had the chance to win the league title; they had it in their hands and then let it slip.

"They were seven points ahead around Christmas - how Manchester City got it in the end beats my mind. As they say in England, I think they bottled it.

"If you have only one defeat in a whole season, surely you can't say that you didn't win the league - so it's hard for me to imagine them having such a similar season and coming out as champions. Manchester City will be the team to beat once again."

Liverpool, who travel to Sheffield United on Saturday, have won all six of their Premier League matches this season to top the table with 18 points - five points clear of second-placed City.