The Spaniard, whose transfer muscle has been severely weakened by the financial limitations of the club's American owners, knows he cannot compete with the cheque books of Chelsea, Manchester United and now Manchester City.

In fact, virtually from the day he walked through the Anfield door he has known his spending power is on a different level to his main rivals.

And now Manchester City have waded in to further muddy the water and cause Benitez problems.

He has frequently in the past hit out at the 'spend, spend, spend' objectives of Roman Abramovich, while railing against the power - subtle or otherwise - of Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson.

True to form, Manchester City's new wealth has felt the lash of his tongue - "money, money, money" he protested - as he fights to further improve a side that finished a creditable second last term.

Critics will rightly point out that Benitez has had plenty of cash to spend and that sometimes he can conveniently ignore facts that would spoil a good rant.

But he is never going to back away from situations that can be turned to Liverpool's advantage, and the Kop love him for it.

This coming season, like all the others under Benitez, will see Liverpool playing the underdogs card in the battle for the title.

And although Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez may have gone from Old Trafford, Benitez does not believe the challenge from the champions will be diminished.

But he does know that Liverpool pushed United very close last season, with their best-ever Premier League season. The four-point gap between them and United was the closest they have got to the title since they last won it 19 years ago.

Benitez said: "Losing Ronaldo will change things for Manchester United, but they have a lot of very good players still there, and they will buy.

"I really do not think there will be much difference in them and what they do, the league will be exciting still.

"People ask me about what Manchester City will do, Aston Villa and Spurs. But there is still ourselves, United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

"The top of the table will still be that quality. The mid-table teams may improve and be better, but they still have to overcome those at the top."

He added: "The Premier League is still a very good league. I do not know whether what has happened over Ronaldo and Tevez will weaken United.

"They have a lot of money to spend, and have signed some good players to go with the good ones they still have. They have great quality there.

"It will be interesting to see how they start the season, whether they have less confidence. But I do not really expect much change from them.

"There is a lot of talk about the amount of money being spent now in the Premier League. But there are a lot of areas of a club that can be managed in a different way to just spending money.

"A manager can concentrate on his team, try to improve the players and the team as a whole."

Benitez will maintain that experience, tactics, preparation, fitness and team spirit can overcome anything.

But he said: "Things have changed. You have to adapt to a situation. Manchester City and big clubs in Europe are spending big money, so the market has changed and we have to work harder.

"You have to do that to stay at the level we are at because of the big money being spent here and abroad.

"Steven Gerrard has signed a new contract. We have been intent on securing the players that we have here, sometimes when you cannot spend really big money on players that is the first priority.

"You must guarantee the club's future by securing the players you already have.

"Yossi Benayoun, Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt, Daniel Agger, they have all signed new contracts and that is vital.

"We have a lot of good players who want to stay, they want to compete and they want to win. That is the best for me.

"The message is that we must improve, to be contenders and to fight for the title. We have to be there at the top all the time, we have a good squad and I am very positive."