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Potential Unai Emery replacements – Rafa Benitez: The pros and cons

There cannot be many fans that would disapprove of Rafa Benitez managing Arsenal.

Rafa Benitez remains one of the most reputable managers in football and the former Liverpool and Newcastle boss could be the ideal person to replace Unai Emery.

Benitez is not without his flaws but in comparison to most managers, his record stands up to scrutiny.

Pros

Benitez has won all the major trophies in European football and the job he did at cash-strapped Newcastle United shows he is a manager that doesn’t need too many resources to succeed.

The 59-year-old can bring the winning mentality back to Arsenal and bring the best out of some players who have been underwhelming under Unai Emery.

Benitez has also shown that he can manage big characters as he did at Liverpool, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Inter Milan.

He is a master at tactics and if anyone can bring structure and organisation to Arsenal it is the Spaniard.

He knows the English game inside out and will hit the ground running.

A hostile crowd would have no effect as he showed when he managed Chelsea. In better words, he can withstand the pressure and succeed.

Cons

Rafa does seem to fall out at some of the teams he manages. While his fallouts are not as high profile and publicized as that of Jose Mourinho, he has left Liverpool, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Newcastle under a cloud and Arsenal may want to avoid a manager with such a reputation.

Benitez is also not the best manager when it comes to promoting or developing youngsters as the Spaniard prefers to sign established professionals. Naming him as Arsenal manager could be the end of the road for the likes of Bukayo Saka and Joe Willock.

His tactics can sometimes be questionable, as an example I recall him withdrawing Torres from a game against Birmingham City much to the dismay of the fans.

This is the nineteenth in a series of articles that I will be doing and all words are my own perception and opinion.

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18 Comments

  1. Just like Ancelotti, this pragmatic old manager has declined and his tactics have been found out by his EPL rivals

    He failed at Inter Milan, Chelsea, Napoli and Real Madrid, let alone managing a club with limited transfer budget like Arsenal

    Besides, he just signed a contract with Dalian Yifang

  3. YES

    He would do better than Emery.

    Like Ancelotti he has won Champions League

    So far my favourites in this series of articles are in no particular order:
    1. ALLEGRI
    2. ANCELOTTI
    3. BENITEZ

    Anyone of them would take us back in to the Top 4

    1. Guys we should stop aiming for top 4. Winning the league should be the target. We used to compete for the league. Let us get a manager that can win us the league. But we need to sack Emery now. My top 3 managers are Mou, Arteta and Enrique.

  8. On every manager’s article, someone some where had something to complain about. The only manager fans would give a chance is probably Klopp 😀 When the series ends, I want a poll on all managers. It would be interesting to see votes count.

  11. Great win for the Arsenal Women……………….just a thought though, if there was a scuffle on the pitch would it literally be a case of……..”handbags” ?

  12. I’ll like to see Martinelli replace one of Ozil, Lacazette or Pepe in our next game. The main problem we have presently is our main strikers (Auba and Laca) don’t really press consistently. Compared that with Mane and Salah (or Sterling and Aguero) who are running throughout the game harassing and making life uncomfortable for the opposition defenders. Their heads drop too easily for my liking. We need players who could press the opposition at their end of the pitch. It simply means we can’t afford to play Auba, Laca, Ozil and Pepe all at the same time.

    1. I did (not Martin)
      Especially as you posted it twice!
      Just because you think its a waste of time discussing it, there were 15 comments so someone does!

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