Benitez added: “If you analyse when we arrived here, the squad we had then and the squad we have now, we have better players with a very good mentality, a winning mentality and they are still improving and are young players that can learn, so I think it is part of the process of when you want to change something.

“That means, for me, in the situation we have now, that we are going in the right direction, but still we have to keep improving. But at least we are going in the right direction.”

Steven Gerrard scored twice and substitute Ryan Babel added a late strike as Liverpool eased to victory at Upton Park at the weekend.

Fernando Torres returned after missing last week’s win over Newcastle United with another hamstring problem. But Benitez revealed the striker, along with Gerrard, has not been training properly.

“The hamstring is a problem for Fernando, he was working with the physios this week, but not his team-mates on the pitch,” said the Liverpool manager.

“I think next week he will be training normally with the team and hopefully will be fit for the next two games.

“Since Fernando and Gerrard didn’t train normally this week they weren’t going to be sharp or fit. But anyway, you can see both players are a threat and a very good influence for the team.”