RAFAEL BENITEZ last night refused to concede defeat in his attempts to sign Gareth Barry – despite the deal being thrown into serious doubt.

Liverpool manager outlined his dire need to bolster his left side, even hinting he may have to look elsewhere and at a cheaper option than the Aston Villa captain.

But he also suggested that the Barry chase was not dead, declaring to “try my best to improve the squad” ahead of the new season.

Benitez refused to be drawn on the apparent refusal of owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett to back his pursuit of the player but couldn’t hide his frustration at his current midfield shortage – particularly on the left – with the start of the competitive season just four days away. “We can improve so we will try to improve, maybe with one more player if we can,” Benitez said following last night’s 1-0 win in Liverpool’s final pre-season friendly against Lazio at Anfield.

“We don’t know who but clearly we have problems on the left. We’ve lost Riise and Kewell, Aurelio is injured, Leto has no work permit and Babel is at the Olympics and could come back injured. So we need to improve in this area.

“(Barry) can play in three different positions and that’s a positive thing but I am talking about one player. And I will try to improve the team and the squad if I can.

“I will try to do my best.”

It is now a week since Villa manager Martin O’Neill conceded defeat in his efforts to prevent his captain leaving for Liverpool.

But owners Hicks and Gillett have yet to follow up on the £18million offer they were willing to sanction last week.

That fell through because Villa’s contrived deadline for completing the deal passed after they insisted on receiving the payments in two instalments rather than three and the Americans have been

seemingly forced into a rethink.

They have already committed £19million to the signing of Robbie Keane from Spurs but the hesitation over Benitez’s main target of Barry is set to put them on another collision course with their manager.

The saga has been a constant source of frustration for the Spaniard since he identified Barry as his top summer target towards the end of last season.

After his first four bids were rejected he was finally close to completing the move last week but remained confident he could still land the 27-year-old England international.

And after O’Neill was prepared to make his embarrassing climb-down after initially expressing delight Barry was staying, it cleared the way for the Liverpool manager to complete the transfer.

Now, with the opening Premier League game at Sunderland just a week away, the failure to capture Barry leaves Benitez’s hopes of getting off to a strong start jeopardised by a midfield shortage, with Javier Mascherano and Lucas at the Olympics.

Benitez was, however, satisfied with the contribution of Xabi Alonso – whose name was constantly chanted by the Kop throughout the game – and Damien Plessis as his central midfield partnership last night.

He added: “In Xabi we have a good player in the team so that’s positive and I hope we have another good paler coming soon.

“It was also good for the young players like Plessis, Nemeth and Ngog getting good first team experience.”