DIRK KUYT has warned newly-crowned champions Manchester United that Liverpool “really can’t wait” for the start of next season and another crack at the Premier League title.

And the Dutchman is convinced the Anfield outfit would have finished even closer to their bitter North West rivals had the current campaign a few more weeks left to run.

United equalled Liverpool’s record of 18 league titles over the weekend after holding off a strong challenge from Rafael Benitez’s side during the run-in.

Sunday’s 2-0 win at West Bromwich Albion moved Liverpool on to 83 points, their record tally in the Premier League era and their highest total since their championship season of 1987-88.

The Anfield outfit have won nine and drawn one of their last 10 league games, scoring 31 goals and conceding only six, four of which came in the home draw against Arsenal.

And Kuyt said: “In some ways it’s a shame that the season is ending now. The performances we have shown in the last couple of months have been very good.

“We tried and did everything we could, and we’ve shown the supporters that we really can’t wait for another go at the title next season. If the season had gone on for another month then maybe we could have been even closer to United.”

Kuyt admits that Liverpool had fallen too far behind the leaders by the time they travelled to Old Trafford in March and secured an historic 4-1 victory.

“The problem was when we went into the game against United in March the gap was basically 10 points (seven points plus a game in hand),” said the Dutchman.

“We beat them and pushed them really, really hard but that was a very big gap for us to try and make up. If the gap had been closer then, the run-in might have been even more interesting but United won all their games anyway.

“We tried to put them under pressure and I think we did that, but in the end it wasn’t quite enough.