Beaming back at him were an array of, if not exactly nobodies, then certainly footballers who would struggle to get a game for the club now.
Even against Fulham, the Saturday before a Champions League semi-final, for that matter. Mauricio Pellegrino, Antonio Nuñez, Josemi, Vladimir Smicer, Milan Baros, Salif Diao. Champions of Europe, apparently. How times change.
Benítez's present Liverpool team have three matches to go to emulate past achievements, but are considerably better placed than three years ago. Then, the manager marshalled a ragbag squad inherited from Gérard Houllier that remained hugely over-reliant on the talismanic abilities of Steven Gerrard. Victories on the road to Istanbul took the form of defensive masterclasses, studies in courage and they-shall-not-pass determination, starring Jamie Carragher, who graduated from local hero to living legend in the space of one season.
Before the final itself, the crowning glory was a semi-final victory over Chelsea, who, now with Roman Abramovich's money and José Mourinho's confrontational brashness, had come to represent everything Liverpudlians perceived their club were not (until the Americans arrived, of course - oh, the irony).
Recent progress can be measured in that the journey to a memorable final win had nothing to compare to the thrilling meeting of equals that was this year's quarter-final win over Arsenal and few attacking sensations to match the present campaign, which has yielded 26 goals in the ten matches of the competition proper. To win the competition in 2005, Liverpool scored 20 times, including two in their qualifying tie.
"A surprise, eh?" Benítez, indicating the happy history on the walls, said. "I must look at that maybe 20 times and I still think, how, how ... ? This squad is much better. You cannot guarantee anything. The best team doesn't always win. Chelsea have players with experience of winning trophies, too. Chelsea have a winning mentality. I hope it will be an open game and we score a lot of goals, but I think it will be tough and difficult and very, very tight."
S*** on a stick, perhaps, as Jorge Valdano, once of Real Madrid, famously described previous Liverpool-Chelsea encounters. His comments were actually more subtle than they first appear - the sporting equivalent of the familiar refrain around Turner Prize time, "but is it art?" - but his scatological branding has endured and the issue remains a live one.
The atmosphere may be intense tonight, but the fixture has a history of offering poor reward for neutrals. In 17 competitive meetings between the sides over four seasons, four games have drawn a complete blank and in six only a single goal has been scored. In 2005, while AC Milan and PSV Eindhoven played out one of the greatest two-leg semi-finals in the competition's history, Liverpool and Chelsea produced one goal in three hours and even that, it was argued, did not cross the line.
"People always like the score to be five-all, but for a manager, if you concede five goals, something is wrong," Benítez said. "So, in terms of being a manager, our games against Chelsea were good games. Chelsea are more tactical, tighter than Arsenal and Manchester United, and this makes it more difficult. It is harder to control them because they are really strong in defence, although Avram Grant is trying to give the players more freedom."
Whether this freedom will be much in evidence at Anfield tonight is doubtful. Grant may wish to pick up the deep-lying Gerrard, so may be tempted to utilise two holding midfield players in Claude Makelele and John Obi Mikel, particularly if Michael Ballack suffers any reaction to his foot injury today.
The Liverpool team expected to play tonight will contain only three survivors from the 2005 fixture at Anfield - Gerrard, Carragher and Sami Hyypia. Chelsea will have continuity in the form of Petr Cech, Ricardo Carvalho, John Terry, Makelele, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Didier Drogba. There is no doubt which club have evolved and Chelsea have every reason to be fearful even if, boiled down, Benítez's record against them amounts to a mere four wins in 17 games.
"They have always had the backbone of Gerrard and Carragher," Terry, the Chelsea captain said, "but Benítez has bought very well and now they've got Fernando Torres. It is a great squad of players that works together and, whether they are the best on paper, they are always together and that is how we must be [tonight]."
Terry's attention was also drawn by the history that lies, almost casually, around Anfield, like ancient artefacts in Rome, but this was not another photographic memento, rather a three-quarter size replica of the European Cup, one of four dotted around the place (plus the real one that is on display in the club museum and was presented for winning the competition five times).
The semi-final stage is as far as Terry, and Chelsea, have got, and undone twice by Liverpool and once by AS Monaco, this has left a scar. "Seeing it there, it is something I want to get my hands on," Terry said. "We mean business now. It is not about Liverpool, it is about what we do. This team has the strength in depth to still be competing in the league with three matches to go and competing in the Champions League with four teams left, and only two clubs can say that.
"This is a chance to make history for the football club ..." and here he clearly meant to say "as a whole" but slipped and said "in a hole" instead.
Precisely where Chelsea will not want to be come tonight, of course. On previous experience, though, as Benítez ushers Liverpool towards another date with history, do not bet against it.
