Rafa Benitez has explained why Everton’s back-to-back defeats to Aston Villa and Queens Park Rangers were a useful learning exercise for him.
Benitez began his Everton reign with five undefeated games after being appointed to replace Carlo Ancelotti in the summer.
However, after such a bright start, the Blues were brought back down to earth when they were beaten for the first time this season by Aston Villa.
Then just days later Benitez’s side crashed out of the Carabao Cup after they were beaten on penalties by QPR after the game at Loftus Road finished 2-2.
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The Blues, however, returned to winning ways at the weekend as they overcame Norwich City 2-0 at Goodison Park thanks to goals from Andros Townsend and Abdoulaye Doucoure.
“I could see the players when I watched games before I came to Everton,” Benitez told evertontv. “But the reality is you know them when you work with them and talk with them.
“When you have to change something during a game, do they understand you and follow the instructions? You learn these things, little-by-little, when you work with them.
“A lot of them understand what we are trying to do – and we have plenty of room for improvement because, you can see, some of them have the potential to be better.”
With minutes to go in Saturday’s match, Blues boss Benitez gave a Premier League debut to 18-year-old Lewis Dobbin as he replaced Alex Iwobi.
And Benitez believes Dobbin’s opportunity is not only good for him, but also the other players in the club’s Academy, who can see a pathway to the first team.
“We are really pleased to see him [Dobbin] doing well in the training sessions,” he said. “He is very bright and has the pace and ability.
“It is an opportunity for him and for the other [Academy and Under-23] players to see they can be there.
“ Anthony Gordon is also playing, so I am really pleased to see these young lads and they have to take their opportunities.”
Everton have eight different scorers already this season and Benitez believes the more goalscorers his side have, the stronger they will be.
“It [goals from multiple sources] is important for us, we can be stronger if we have more people in attack and scoring,” he said.
“If you have the natural top scorers, it will be easier. But, in the meantime, I am really pleased to see any player scoring goals.”
