Rafa Benitez does not believe he will be sacked if Inter Milan do not perform well at the upcoming Club World Cup.
The former Liverpool manager took over the San Siro in the summer following his departure from Anfield, but he has struggled to emulate the results which saw his predecessor Jose Mourinho depart for Real Madrid having guided Inter to a domestic double and the Champions League title.
And, as Inter continue to struggle both in Serie A and in Europe, it is being suggested that Benitez is already facing the sack.
However the Spaniard has moved to play down such talk, while insisting the side's showing at the Club World Cup will not determine his future.
Benitez said: "I don't believe my future depends on that.
"I hope the team does well as a team, then the individual quality may help but what is important is the team."
Benitez was speaking following Tuesday's disappointing 3-0 defeat at Werder Bremen which meant Inter had to settle for second place in Group A, behind Tottenham Hotspur. And he insisted that people should not read too much into that result as he opted to make several changes given that qualification to the last-16 was already assured.
"Our aim is clear - it's the Club World Cup," he added. "We saw that was the case against Werder.
"We played the game having already qualified for the next round.
"The match that was truly important was the one that we won at home to Twente [two weeks ago].
"I played the youngsters at Werder and I believe that was the positive aspect of the game as we didn't want to risk losing a player to injury."