Barcelona striker Luis Suarez has taken a swipe at his old club Liverpool by claiming they would never have mounted their unexpected title challenge last season without him.
The controversial Uruguayan, who left in a £75m deal in the summer, said: "The truth is that I left very happy because if I hadn't had the attitude and mentality to want to lead the team forward, I don't think Liverpool would have done as well as they did."
Suarez has also repeated his claims that he was innocent of racially abusing Patrice Evra, despite being found guilty by a Football Association panel, handed an eight-match suspension and fined £40,000.
Reflecting on the incident in which he bit Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup, he also admitted: "I found it hard to take in and to realise what I had done."
The striker was speaking ahead of his first competitive appearance for Barcelona a week on Saturday against Real Madrid, having served a four-month ban for biting Chiellini.
On Suarez's Liverpool claims, there is some validity to his argument, especially as the team have struggled this season without him. He scored 31 Premier League goals as Liverpool finished runners-up to Manchester City even though he started his final campaign in England suspended as he was still serving some of his 10-game ban for biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic. He was also made to train on his own after trying to manufacture a move away.
While he was serving the remainder of his ban, Liverpool picked up 10 points out of a possible 15, but having been reintegrated into the squad the striker returned with 19 goals in his first 12 league appearances as Liverpool gathered increasing momentum on their way to second place.
Suarez, who is due to receive the Golden Shoe for being Europe's joint-leading scorer from Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish in Barcelona this week, added: "I appreciate all the work the team did but I missed six matches and scored all those goals in the Premier League without being the penalty-taker.
"The truth is that I left very happy because if I hadn't had the attitude and mentality to want to lead the team forward, I don't think Liverpool would have done as well as they did."
He said he had accepted responsibility for most of his past misdemeanours, including the Chiellini incident, but is still "upset" over his punishment for racially abusing Evra. "It is good to accept that you have made a mistake and that's what I did," he said in reference to the Chiellini bite. "I left it a few days because you have to remember that I'm only human and sometimes it's hard to face the truth.
"I found it hard to take in and to realise what I had done. When I say I'm sorry it's because I regret something. Being sorry implies regret.
"But they have also sometimes judged me on things that aren't true, such as the racism thing. I was accused without evidence and that's what grieved me the most."
Meanwhile Liverpool's first-team coach, Mike Marsh, insists his club's approach to training and recovery will not change despite criticism from Roy Hodgson and the club facing seven games in 21 days. The England manager's comments resulted from teenage forward Raheem Sterling saying he was tired ahead of Sunday's Euro 2016 qualifier in Estonia.
Hodgson disagrees with Brendan Rodgers' claim that fast-paced players like Sterling require lighter duties in the 48 hours after a match and intends to speak to the Liverpool manager about it. "With England there has been a lot of discussion recently," Marsh said. "We don't really change. Our fitness programmes have been well-documented. We try to recover the players as best we can to prepare for the games."
