Can Everton’s FPL assets have a strong start under new boss Rafael Benitez?

Rafael Benitez’s return to the Premier League has caused quite the stir on Merseyside.

The former Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Napoli coach is back in Liverpool after an 11-year absence but has switched allegiance to the blue half of the city, following half a dozen years in charge at Anfield.

The 61-year-old Spaniard’s fourth stint at the helm of an English club has divided opinion in the north-west but what does it mean for Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers?

Our Scout Report takes a closer look.

THE HISTORY

Benitez graduated through the Real Madrid coaching set-up to become the club’s B-side manager in 1993 but his first stabs at taking the hotseat elsewhere were ill-fated, with spells at Real Valladolid and Osasuna ending in ignominy.

Promotions with Extremadura and Tenerife preceded his surprise appointment at Valencia, the club with which his reputation was effectively built.

Benitez won two La Liga titles and a UEFA Cup with the Spanish outfit before departing for Liverpool, with whom he sealed a memorable Champions League success in his first year in charge.

Five consecutive top-five finishes with the Reds didn’t translate into any domestic trophyware beyond a 2006 FA Cup, with his exit and subsequent short stints at Inter, Chelsea and Real Madrid perhaps hinting that his powers were waning – although there was a Europa League success at the Blues and his win percentage never dipped below 48% from 2000-2016.

There were two seasons at Napoli amid those short-lived stays across Europe, with a Coppa Italia in 2013/14 his last major piece of silverware as a club manager.

Unable to save Newcastle from the drop in 2015/16, Benitez led the Magpies back to the Premier League and secured two comfortably mid-table top-flight finishes with a limited squad before spending 18 months with Dalian Professional in China.

MANAGERIAL STYLE

Often labelled a defensive-minded manager, Benitez has been heralded for his organisational qualities and attention to detail.

The man himself told FourFourTwo in 2019:

I like tactics – I like to play chess and I like to play Stratego. I liked it when I was 13, when I was playing and taking notes, and at 17 I was a coach and a player at the same time at university, so I’ve always liked tactics. I went to Italy to watch Arrigo Sacchi, Fabio Capello, and Claudio Ranieri when he was in charge of Fiorentina. I travelled all around the world, analysing tactics.

Upon the journeyman Spaniard’s appointment at Goodison Park, the Guardian’s Jonathan Wilson pointed out that Benitez’s most successful managerial spells came at those clubs just outside of the European elite – which could be a good match for the Toffees:

With a training method based on constant repetitions and rigorous drilling, it can seem as though he is trying to mould his players into pieces he can manoeuvre around the pitch. He distrusts individual inspiration, which can bring conflict with bigger egos, but that’s an approach that seems more logically suited to a club of Everton’s status than Ancelotti’s ever did. Benítez’s biggest successes have come with clubs on the fringes of the elite – Valencia, Liverpool (as they were) and Napoli – where the organisation he attempts to instil, uninhibited by the egos of stars, elevates players to compete with more obvious starry names.

His all-time Premier League record betrays a pragmatic approach; Benitez’s sides conceded at a rate of less than a goal a game, scoring a solid but not spectacular average of 1.53 goals per match.

FAVOURED TACTICS

A proponent of a back four for much of his coaching career, Benitez’s teams spent much of the last decade either in a 4-2-3-1 (eg Napoli) or 4-3-3 (eg Real Madrid).

It was at Newcastle, where he was in charge of a squad with limited ability, that we saw him adopt a defence-first 5-4-1/3-4-2-1 – a system he also experimented with when presiding over a similarly mediocre squad in China.

Above left: Benitez’s Chelsea in their 4-2-3-1
Above right: Benitez’s Newcastle in their 3-4-2-1

How he sees the best approach for Everton being will likely be revealed in pre-season but the adoption of a wing-back system would certainly heighten interest in Lucas Digne (£5.5m).

Benitez moved Newcastle to a 3-4-2-1 from Gameweek 13 of 2018/19 onwards; from that point, Matt Ritchie (£5.0m) created more chances than any other Fantasy defender bar – you guessed it – Digne. Ritchie was a left-wing-back on dead-ball duties under Benitez, the same role that Everton’s French defender would presumably be occupying.

With Benitez rarely using two central strikers and instead often deploying two narrower inside forwards either side of an attacking spearhead, Richarlison (£7.5m) would also likely see his job remit change from the one he had in Carlo Ancelotti’s 4-4-2 or 3-5-2.

A STRONG STARTER – GIVEN TIME

A full pre-season with Benitez, which started on the day of this article, bodes well for Everton and their Fantasy assets.

The new Toffees coach has a mostly excellent opening record with his new employers when given a summer to impart his “constant repetition and rigourous drilling”.

Just look at this rap sheet from the teams he joined ahead of a new campaign:

• Extremadura: one defeat in his first 14 matches
• Tenerife: two defeats in his first 14 league games
• Valencia: unbeaten in his first 18 competitive games
• Inter: one defeat in his first 11 Serie A matches
• Napoli: five wins on the bounce, just two defeats in his first 15 fixtures in all competitions
• Real Madrid: unbeaten in his first 14 competitive matches

Contrast that to his spells at Chelsea and Newcastle, clubs he took over midway through a campaign: the Blues and the Magpies were winless in their first three and four games respectively under Benitez before things turned for the better, having been deprived of a month or two of Rafa’s micromanagement in advance.

The exception to this general rule is Liverpool, where he lost three of his first seven Premier League games despite a full pre-season – although this is mitigated partly when we read that all three losses were away matches at clubs who went on to finish in the top six.

THE PROSPECTS

Benitez’s reputation as a strong starter after a full pre-season marries nicely with Everton’s opening fixture run.

The Toffees sit top of our Season Ticker from Gameweeks 1-10, meeting just one of the so-called ‘big six’ and enjoying some appealing home matches in particular.

Everton’s home form was woeful last season, something Benitez alluded to upon his appointment:

I think it is crucial for us to have the fans behind us. This year with the pandemic has been very difficult and football without the fans is totally different. I was following the form of Everton and obviously away from home, they have been fine but not so good at home. Why? Because they didn’t have the fans behind. It is crucial.

I am expecting the fans – and I know all the things that people talk about – but I am expecting the fans after one year of not going to the stadium to go and stay behind the team. We need the fans behind the team and I think they will be.

There-in lies the X factor with Benitez at Goodison Park: the fans.

He enjoyed unwavering backing from the watching public at Newcastle even when things were tough but he faces a much sterner task to win over the Everton faithful given his Red roots.

But it wouldn’t be the first time he has faced such hostility from his own fanbase, having encountered a similarly frosty welcome from the Chelsea support in 2012 – going on to finish third in the Premier League and win European silverware.