Rafa Benitez Writes Off Title Chances?

In what comes as an astonishing development, Rafael Benitez has completely down-played Liverpool's chances of winning the English Premier League next season—already!

Now, I cannot really figure out whether he was lost in translation, but it definitely seems as if the Liverpool boss has set his sights on the Champions League again.

While Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson have very clearly re-iterated the fact that they're going all out for the Premiership title again next season, Benitez didn't exhibit the same kind of confidence in his squad:

"It is an option, for sure," he told the club's website. "We know our weaknesses and our strengths. We know where we need to improve, so we'll try to build a new team looking at these things.

"It's more difficult than in Spain because the top sides spend big, big money. We will try to do our best and the key for me is to not talk about the title.

"The key is to be near the top, to be contenders. If we stay close then I think we are capable of doing it.

"It's more difficult because after two years of Chelsea winning the league and spending big money, United needed to do the same.

"They started spending big money, and Arsenal were also spending big money on young players. We are trying to do the same, but because they (Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal) are continuing to spend big money, it makes it more difficult to catch up.

"You also see Aston Villa, Newcastle, West Ham, and Everton spending money and having strong teams. It's not easy to be in the top four and be contenders but because we have a young squad we can try again."

I don't know which of the statements above can be taken as positive ones or ones which show a whole lot of confidence.

Why is Benitez being so conservative? Does he feel as if he's taken Liverpool as far as he can? Or has he been completely lost in translation?