Arne Slot afforded himself a little smile when he admitted that this was the toughest season in his career "by a mile" on Tuesday.
No matter what Slot achieves across the rest of his managerial days, this campaign has pushed the Dutchman to new limits.
After romping to the Premier League title in his first season in charge at Liverpool, the second has seen Slot and his side face a barrage of "setbacks", "hits" and "bad luck" as he mentioned during his news conference on Tuesday. More on that later.