Danny Murphy: Benitez will discard unexpected Everton players
Rafa Benitez will give the cold shoulder to “one or two” unexpected players at Everton, according to Danny Murphy.
Everton rocked their fanbase this week when Benitez, 61, was officially unveiled as their new manager despite his Liverpool past.
Former Reds midfielder Murphy expects the Spaniard to shake things up on the blue side of Stanley Park and predicts he’ll ostracise a couple of players who fans might not expect him to.
“I still think Rafa will do things his way. One or two of the Everton players you don’t expect will fall out of favour because he has a clear idea of the type of player he likes,” BBC pundit Murphy told the Daily Mail.
“He won’t try to appease fans, he will stick to his methodology, and he will train with more intensity than they have been used to.
“I would be amazed we didn’t a fitter, more athletic and structured Everton team next season – just as they were under Moyes. The only pity for Farhad Moshiri is that he didn’t appoint Rafa a few years ago, the club might be in a better place today had he done so.”
Who will it be?
Benitez is inheriting a squad that needs a massive shake-up this summer.
One of the reasons Carlo Ancelotti left Goodison was maybe due to the amount of deadwood that is at the club.
There are a number of players who need shifting on after a mixed season in the Premier League and we’d expect most of them to be sold.
But who out of the regular starters would Benitez cut adrift? It’s hard to point out anyone.
However, that’s the whole point of Murphy’s claim. He feels as though it will be players you don’t expect who are shunned by Rafa.
It might be radical and it might not be popular but Benitez is manager now and whether we like it or not, he has to be allowed to do things his way because he’s proven time and time again in England that he’s good at what he does.
In terms of incoming, almost every departure must be met with a new arrival unless Benitez suddenly decides to put his faith in youth.
He didn’t do that at Newcastle so we don’t think he’ll do it here – although the young players available are far more talented than those in the North-East he had.
In other Everton news, here is the “talk in Colombia” about James Rodriguez’s situation at Goodison.
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