AP Photo

Rafael Benítez often seems conservative and even glum. Compliments are handed out so sparingly that the Liverpool manager must suppose they are a natural resource on the brink of exhaustion. Experience has deepened the wariness in his character and Benítez had been sacked twice by lower-division clubs in Spain before making his breakthrough.

Even then, Valencia had been spurned by other candidates before they arrived at his name well down the list. Adversity seems natural to Benítez. That is just as well, considering the circumstances...