Well that didn’t take long as Rafa Benitez won his first official match as Everton manager following the Toffees win last night over Millionarios.
In their first offical pre-season match Benitez’s new-look Everton side eventually beat the Colombian club in a penalty shoot-out in the Florida Cup.
Last night’s game saw the Blues boss unveil some interesting tactical tweeks and while we obviously can’t read too much into this, it did give a few hints as to how Everton might be able to play this coming Premier League season.
The first and most obvious surprise was Denmarai Gray’s position when he came on. The Toffees signing from Bayer Leverkusen has generally played as a winger and usually on the right hand side and that’s where everyone expects him to operate going forward.
But against Millionarios Gray played in the centre of the three forwards behind the striker and he looked very comfortable and influential there, more so than James Rodriguez.
This is interesting because while the future of the Blues Colombian star is still so uncertain it will give Benitez another option if as is likely he wants to continue with a 4-2-3-1 formation, his favoured way to line-up.
There are still plenty of rumours that Everton want to sign another wide attacker so if that were that was case and Rodriguez did leave this summer, Gray could well be a real option to play behind the centre-forward.
Of course he can also operate as a traditional winger and this flexibility means the manager can employ different looks for different opponents, which will be useful.
Having Gray play in that role will also give direct pace and support for whoever is playing centre-forward and means that the Toffees could have another wide player without necessarily possessing blistering speed whose main role would be to put quality balls into the box.
That could be Dwight McNeil whom Everton have been strongly linked with or someone like Matheus Pereira who I think would be a perfect signing in that position for the Blues.
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Talking of putting good balls into the penalty area, Andros Townsend produced some very decent crosses with both his left and right foot and he showed his ability to cut inside and shoot when he hit the crossbar with one strong effort.
It will be really important that Everton can get more goals from the attacking players as a whole than they did last season and so whoever does line up wide will need to contribute in that respect. Again that’s one of Pereira’s strengths.
But while these were these positives from the Florida Cup win, there were also some disappointments in terms of other player’s performances.
Most of all once again Alex Iwobi failed to make any impression and you wonder how many more chances he will be given by his new boss.
With the arrival of Gray and Townsend and those rumorus of more wide attackers on the club’s wish list, you might have thought Iwobi would be determined to produce his best and stake a claim for a place in the team.
Another player who didn’t have a great game was Moise Kean. The Italian striker has never settled since joining the Blues and as we’ve said so many times before and it seems the best thing for both the club and the player if he does move on this summer.