He believes that the 30 year-old Kyrgiakos lacks match fitness.
Meanwhile Benitez anticipates plenty of teams taking points off the Reds, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea.
He said: "This will be a different sort of title race. Already we have lost, and so have Manchester United.
"There are other teams who can make an impact - Spurs, Manchester City, Villa - and I believe it will be a lot harder this season for the top four teams to win every game.
"Villa will be difficult for us. They have pace, experience and ability. They do very well in away games because of that and are an extremely dangerous side."
Villa central defender Curtis Davies is doubtful after a recurrence of his shoulder problem.
Davies suffered the setback during the latter stages of the Europa League loss at Rapid Vienna and his replacement, rookie Shane Lowry, is amongst the candidates to replace him although Habib Beye could switch from right-back.
Boss Martin O'Neill will also be hoping striker John Carew is fit to make his first appearance of the season - the Norwegian missed the home league reversal by Wigan with a foot injury and then pulled out of the Vienna game with a virus
