The question was asked at the start of the season. Could Rafa Benitez operate at Championship level? Whilst the Spaniard has managed in the biggest leagues and the biggest clubs, the Championship is a unique beast. But it is becoming quite clear that Rafa Benitez has found a strategy to make things work.
In the summer, Rafa Benitez understood a huge rebuilding operation, signing numerous players as he looked to send Newcastle straight back to the Premier League.
In previous years, if somebody had told you that they were going to make 7 changes to their line-up for a League Cup fixture, you would assume they were de-prioritising the competition. And that’s what Benitez did for the midweek fixture against Preston. But this wasn’t him de-prioritising the competition – this was a show of strength.
Newcastle beat Preston 6-0 in a fixture that took them to the quarter-finals of the league cup. Benitez is likely to rotate again this weekend and this strategy is working very well.
When Newcastle made movements in the Transfer market in the summer, a lot of the fans may have been underwhelmed with some of the transfer business. Yes, you may have had some signings that excited the fans such as Gayle, Ritchie and Diame, but the majority were uninspiring with the likes of Clark, Hanley, Murhpy and Isaac Hayden singing for Newcastle on long term deals.
But there was a strategy to this. Benitez knew that there was a culture problem inside Newcastle. Their squad was too small, and some of the under achieving players knew that even if they played poorly, they would be in the team the following week as the squad is too small.
And what Benitez has done superbly, is make all of the squad players feel like they are first team players. Nobody feels like a back-up.
Benitez treats them all like first-team players because they are all first-team players. “We are trying to improve every single player we have in the squad, whether they are playing or not,” he explained on Tuesday.
“We are working with Gayle – he is scoring goals. But at the same time, if Murphy is available we will be working with him too. We try to improve Mitrovic because maybe he’ll play in the next game and be important.
“If you have this attitude, you have a squad where it doesn’t feel as if you pick a weak team. Everyone is ready to play.”
The most obvious test of whether the rotation is working, however, is results. And as shown by their 6-0 league cup win, and their form in the league, Benitez’s strategy in using his whole squad is paying dividends.