After a hectic summer so far in which Everton have been forced to replace their manager for the sixth time in six years, the team jetted off today for the Florida Cup.
Everton included their two new signings Andros Townsend and Asmir Begovic in the squad for the US pre-season tournament.
The Toffees are due to play Inter Milan, Millionarios of Colombia and Arsenal in the US before returning to England for their final pre-season matches before the campaign kicks off.
While these pre-season tours are primarily a marketing exercise, the Blues should have a decent chance to hone their pre-season preparations and tactics and integrate their new players.
The tournament will also hopefully give us some further clues about how Benitez might look to set up his Everton side ready for the upcoming Premier League campaign.
In the past he has used a variety of formations and tactics and although mostly he’s favoured a 4-2-3-1 system he has also gone with three at the back often as well.
And it’s in defence where the biggest question marks are still be resolved going into the season with uncertainty over who will play at right-back and centre-half.
At the moment the Toffees still haven’t brought in another right-sided defender with rumours still swirling about possible bids for players like Denzel Dumfries and Diogo Dalot.
This leaves them with Seamus Coleman and Jonjo Kenny who has returned from his loan spell at Celtic last season.
As has been said many times before, I think it’s really important this position is resolved before the season begins as last summer Everton failed to bring in a player here and it cost them.
As for centre-back there are two players whose futures seems very much up in the air; Mason Holgate and Yerry Mina.
Holgate had a terrible end to the last campaign making a series of schoolboy errors and raising serious questions about whether he has what it takes to be a Premier League defender.
If he gets game-time in this pre-season tour he needs to show he can overcome his mental lapses and reproduce his best form, which has been seen very rarely in recent months.
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As for Mina he was solid enough overall last season but as usual he had his injury problems and that kept him out of the team and he seems the most likely of the existing centre-backs to be sold if Benitez wants to bring in another player and needs the funds.
Meanwhile if he decides to use a back three then Ben Godfrey will prove crucial to making that work given his pace and man-marking ability. It will be significant to see what Benitez does here.
Of the two new signings I’m sure Begovic will get some time between the sticks and it will be interesting to see how Townsend lines up.
He is versatile enough to play wide on either flank or in the middle but his favoured position is on the right hand side. Maybe he will line up there with James Rodriguez moving inside to play in the number ten role?
Alternatively given his excellent work-rate and defensive contribution, he might also be able to play as a wing-back, giving Benitez the option of shifting to a three or five-man defence.
All intriguing stuff and we will see how different this Everton team under Benitez may look and play in Florida and what hints for the upcoming season it provides.