Hull can claim that on Saturday they were even fortunate to come away with a point, so abject was the home team's display. Even after they had fallen behind to Paul McShane's header and Jamie Carragher's own goal, Steven Gerrard scored the second of his double with just over half an hour gone.
Yet Hull goalkeeper Boaz Myhill had a pretty quiet second half, saving a fizzing Albert Riera shot and seeing Sami Hyypia's header come back off the post. They could never claim to be comfortable but apart from a few late flurries, that was about it.
With Robbie Keane left on the bench, the player that Benitez paid £20.3 million for just five months ago, was already shaking his head before Nabil El Zhar and then Ryan Babel were brought on in pursuit of a vital goal. When Lucas was selected as Liverpool's third and final substitute with four minutes left, Keane walked past Benitez and plonked himself down on the bench.
Benitez defended his decision to leave Keane on the bench and he said: "We were thinking about using the wingers and they were good, two or three good runs from Nabil and also Babel and to put more people into the box is not a guarantee.
"Clearly these are the kinds of games that you have to win and we have to be disappointed but we can't change things. This was a little bit frenetic and you have to control these games. Everything was almost perfect...just the third goal."
West Brom were given a patronising pat on the back for their positive attitude in their 3-0 defeat here last month but Hull proved that it is possible to try and win at Anfield and still not lose.
With just one defeat - a 4-3 loss at Old Trafford - and victories at Arsenal, and Tottenham on their travels this season, there is good reason for the slight cockiness and swagger about this set of Premier League new-boys, as well as a belief that they belong.
They were ahead after 11 minutes when Geovanni's free-kick was missed by Hyypia and Marlon King clipped a cross back in for McShane to rise above a pathetic challenge from Liverpool's left-back Andrea Dossena to head in.
Ten minutes later they doubled their advantage after King's cross-field pass found Bernard Mendy, who was destroying Dossena every time he ran at him, to beat the Italian once again and send in a cross that squirmed off Carragher into his own net.
Two minutes after that Gerrard pulled one back, stabbing in after Michael Turner and Albert Riera had both missed Dirk Kuyt's cross from the right at the near post and 10 minutes after that they were level when Gerrard found the top corner after Kuyt and Yossi Benayoun got touches to Carragher's cross.
But after that it was limited to pot shots. Hyypia's header came back off the inside of the post from Gerrard's corner, and Xabi Alonso went close on a couple of occasions from distance but Myhill's only real work was to block a drive from Riera and make a low, scrambling save from El Zhar.
Brown felt Hull were harshly treated for both goals and he said: "If you're ball watching, you're a bad defender, if you're ball watching you're a bad referee. He was fouled for the first goal and Dirk Kuyt was climbing all over Michael Turner for the second goal.
"To go 2-0 up and concede two goals in the manner that we did was disappointing that we didn't come in with three points rather than one but I'm the Hull City manager, I shouldn't be talking like this."