Benitez: I won’t leave Liverpool

The Spaniard has been linked with a summer move to Spanish giants Real Madrid.

He said: “I think I will be here next season, of course. After winning the Champions League and FA Cup, the main competition for us is the Premiership. When you haven’t won it for 17 years and have won 18 in the past, it’s obviously the one that we want.

“I have confidence I can deliver it one day, because my team is a good one. We are really close to the ones ahead of us but, over 10 months, we are not as consistent. We need to improve in a lot of things. We’re doing a lot of things well but we can do a lot of things better.

“I think we can do it, yes, but everything has to be perfect.

“We know if we make a mistake, the others will be even further away because they have been winning almost every week.

“The season hasn’t been a bad one but we lost a few games away from home early on while United and Chelsea kept winning. So although we are close, we are not as close as people think.

“We could finish 20 or 25 points behind United and last season it was only one.

“This season the difference has been United and Chelsea can play badly and win games.

“My team is better now than when we won the Champions League but the others have been going even faster.

“If they are running at, say, 100kph, you have to make sure that you go at 110.”