Gerard Houllier's side were one of the top eight seeds last year, when they had to qualify after finishing third in the Premiership, but this season will have to settle for being one of the eight teams in the second rank.

Arsenal and Manchester United will both be among the top seeds, meaning they will avoid playing the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich in the first group stage.

The seedings are worked out through UEFA's complicated coefficient system which awards points for a club's success in European competition over the previous five seasons, with the Champions League given far more weight than the UEFA Cup.

Last season, the defeat of Italian club Parma in the qualifying round of the Champions League enabled Liverpool to sneak in as a top seed. This season, four Italian clubs should be in the last 32 and Spanish champions Valencia, who missed out last season, are also there while beaten finalists Bayer Leverkusen now have a higher ranking than Houllier's Premiership runners-up.

Although UEFA will not rubber-stamp arrangements until just before the draw, which takes place in Monaco at 3pm English time tomorrow, it is virtually certain to be the same system as in previous years.

In that case, the 32 contestants will be drawn into eight groups of four. Each group will contain a team from one of the eight top seeds, plus a team from second, third and fourth-ranked sides.

Clubs cannot be drawn into a group containing a side from the same country.

The worst case scenario for Liverpool would be to be drawn in a group with champions Real Madrid plus strong sides from the third and fourth-ranked pools, such as AC Milan - including new signing Rivaldo - and French champions Lens.

Last year the Reds had a relatively easy task in a group containing Borussia Dortmund, Boavista and Dynamo Kiev.

Newcastle and Celtic are almost certain to be in the fourth-ranked pool if they succeed in qualifying.

Rankings and coefficient according to UEFA: 1 Real Madrid (Esp) 147.233, 2 Bayern Munich (Ger) 133.495, 3 Man Utd (Eng) 125.729, 4 Barcelona (Spa) 116.233, 5 Valencia (Spa) 106.233, 6 Juventus (Ita) 91.334, 7 Arsenal (Eng) 90.729, 8 Inter Milan (Ita) 88.334; 9 Deportivo La Coruqa (Spa) 82.233, 10 Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 81.495, 11 Liverpool (Eng) 79.729, 12 Galatasaray (Tur) 78.362, 13 Roma (Ita) 77.334, 14 Lyon (Fra) 74.176, 15 Borussia Dortmund (Ger) 73.495, 16 Feyenoord (Hol) 70.082.