Everton: Training Video shows Rafa Benitez’s increased involvement and approach

Video of Rafa Benitez during Everton training is on the club’s official Youtube channel.

What it shows is interesting.

Benitez is far more involved with the training and his voice along with other staff members was audible during the video.

It’s easy and often a mistake to read too much into early views of a team, especially in preseason. But with that caveat, Everton did look more energetic and seemed to enjoy being pushed.

Rafa Benitez is more hands-on in Everton training

Most of the video showed a passing drill and the ball was zipping around. James Rodriguez and Andre Gomes showed their class with some long passes.  Rodriguez looked tired,  at the end of the video, he’s shown collapsing on a batch of balls on the ground. Glyfi Sigurdsson also looked gassed as he sat on a ball close to Rodriguez.

Benitez and his staff were vocal, very vocal, and loud as they cajoled and praised the players during the drill. In the video, Rafa Benitez was waving his hand while he said “Let’s go, pace, pace, pace.”

Pace was sometimes lacking in an Everton team that seemed to go through the motions especially in the last few months of the season. It’s early going, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen under Benitez and his staff.

Sometimes their voices blended together and became a little hard to understand, but for most of the time it was very audible. With his size and presence, Duncan Ferguson is hard to ignore. He praised Moise Kean on more than one occasion.

“Well done, Moise,” Ferguson’s Scottish accent rang out.

Kean excelled at PSG after going on loan to the French Club, which wanted to extend the loan for another season with an option to buy according to Sportwitness

That’s unlikely, the Blues won’t loan the Italian star again and will demand a good price, perhaps as much as £55 million to the Liverpool Echo,

The piece also warns Marcel Brands, the director of football to drive a hard bargain if Kean wants to leave.

However,  he looked happy and was seen smiling in the video along with Rodriguez, who is also tipped to leave. If Kean stays and produces anything close to what he did at PSG, he will be an asset to the Blues, especially with Richarlison possibly missing the start of the season because of his participation in the Olympics with Brazil. French fullback Niels Nkounkou is expected to be added to the French Olympic squad as well, according to The Athletic.

The article states Nkounkou’s absence could leave Everton short of cover at left-back with Thierry Small playing hide-and-seek in an apparent attempt to engineer an exit from Everton.

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In three seasons at Everton, first-choice Lucas Digne has missed 14 Premier League contests with eight coming last season. Ben Godfrey has been used at left-back and Fabian Delph can fill in there as well.

Back to the video, Delph and Tom Davies were seen in conversation during a break.

But perhaps the presence of Jean-Phillipe Gbamin on the pitch and healthy is among the best news. Gbamin has suffered from an incredible string of injuries since he joined the Blues and so far what he has shown in limited views is impressive.

He moved confidently during the practice and he showed his skill with a great pass to set up Anthony Gordon for a goal in Everton’s 3-0 victory against Accrington Stanley in a practice match at USM Finch Farm.

Benitez and his Blues will need his squad to stay healthy as some key ingredients will be missing for the Florid Cup which starts on July 26 in Orlando. In addition to Richarlison and Nkounkou at the Olympics; the England duo of Jordan Pickford and Dominic Calvert-Lewin as well as Colombia’s Yerry Mina will be missing until 3 August, due to their participation in the Euros and the Copa America.

What do you think of Benitez’s approach to training?