RAFAEL BENITEZ has vowed to carry on fighting for his Liverpool future – after revealing the thought of resignation hasn’t entered his head.
The Anfield manager has come under increasing pressure after Wednesday night’s dreadful FA Cup exit at home to Coca-Cola Championship strugglers Reading.
With Liverpool already out of the Champions League, Carling Cup and the race for the Premier League title, it dealt another huge blow to their hopes of salvaging a massively disappointing campaign.
Benitez’s mood was hardly helped by injuries to Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Yossi Benayoun, the most serious of which will keep Torres on the sidelines for the next six weeks.
Liverpool are now left facing a major fight to secure Champions League qualification given they currently stand in seventh, five points adrift of fourth-placed Manchester City.
But a beleaguered Benitez refuses to press the panic button and is determined to meet the challenge head on, which begins with the visit to Stoke City in today’s early Premier League kick-off.
“The main thing I can do now is to keep working hard,” said the Liverpool manager. “If I talk too much about other things going on I will lose focus on Stoke.
“At this moment we are in a race and when you’re in a race you cannot took too much or the others will pass you. There is no panic, but we have to do our job.
“As a manager you know you will have bad times, but it’s clear if I lose my focus then we will not improve. Sometimes you need people supporting you, to help you, but we have a good staff.
“Leaving has never gone through my head. Clearly I want to fight. “But right now my future is Stoke. I signed a long-term contract and have belief in this club. Everyone knows the team’s not playing at the level it can. When we lose, everyone loses - the fans, the players, the staff. I can understand the fans’ frustrations but we feel the same. We want to win for them.”
Benitez’s latest woes come less than 12 months after signing a new five-year contract in which he was granted extra control in certain parts of the club.
But the Spaniard dismissed suggestions he has taken on so much new responsibility that it is affecting his managerial efforts.
