BENITEZ EYEING TITLE BID

Rafael Benitez believes Liverpool can win the Barclays Premier League next season and admits that ending an 18-year wait for the title would be 'the biggest achievement of his career.'

The Reds boss is confident his side can push Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea all the way in the race to be crowned champions of England in 2009 and insists that such an achievment would surpass any of the previous honours he has won in both England and Spain. "Winning the title would be the biggest achievement of my career," said Benitez. "It's more difficult than in Spain because teams here spend big money. "But we will do our best. The key for me is not to talk about winning the title but to talk about doing a good job so we can be close, so we can be contenders. "If we are close I think that we can win the title." Since the end of the 2007-08 campaign Benitez has been busy planning for the forthcoming season. The Spaniard has been working closely with his staff, identifying players to add to his squad and analysing any areas of his side that he feels need improvement. "You must do your job with your players after the season has ended and in the summertime you need to do your job with your staff," he said. "The key, though, is to sign the right players with the right mentality – a winning mentality – competitive players, players who are desperate to come here to win something. "That is the key for me. We have been analysing a lot of things this summer. For example, we were conceding a lot of goals last season from set pieces. "We need to know why because the previous season we only conceded six, but this year it has been 16. We need to know why so we can improve in these areas, but keep the team scoring goals in open play. "We have been really good in defence for three or four years but we need to improve a little bit if we want to be in contention."