“If you play all the time, if you get the chance to play week in, week out, then you must be a good player.

“But I don’t care if Martin and I are rivals for a starting place, he is still a friend of mine and I will still tell the world how highly I rate him.

“He is an excellent defender and will keep getting better. We are competing with each other, maybe, to play in the team but it’s not a rivalry. Both of us play and train to the best of our ability and then the manager makes the decision.”

Liverpool’s hopes of keeping midfielder Xabi Alonso, meanwhile, increased when Jorge Valdano admitted Real Madrid were some distance away from Benitez’s valuation of the player.

While Valdano admits Alonso remains one of their targets, the Madrid director general wants the price to be right.

“Xabi Alonso is a priority if he fits into our budget, and this doesn’t seem the case. We are very far from the figures that Liverpool have set out,” Valdano said.

“Liverpool have taken up a difficult stance over Xabi Alonso. I don’t like to talk about the private details of negotiations.

“We are now studying many alternatives.”