Premier League coming back is right move despite it not being same game, admits Rafael Benitez

But amidst Hawkeye issues, problems with contracts and even a lack of crowds eventually hurting teams, Rafael Benitez believes that the Premier League still made the right move. The former Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle United boss admitted that the English top tier’s return to action is the correct stance despite the game, on a whole, changing ever so slightly. Benitez also added that the biggest change will be the five substitutions although it cannot be a permanent move.

“Coming back is the right thing, although we are not coming back to quite the same game. I’ve watched a lot of the Bundesliga matches. It’s strange without the fans but it looks to me like the German teams have adapted quite quickly. The intensity is fine. People are talking a lot about losing home advantage but I’ve looked at the scores and don’t see a big difference. It’s more to do with the level of the team; normally, the strongest will win wherever you play,” Benitez wrote in the Athletic.

“The issue is not that it will give an advantage to the top sides, as some have suggested. The teams with more money and therefore better players on the bench can have one kind of advantage, it’s true, but the sides who are less good can reduce their disadvantage through physicality. You could make three substitutions at half-time, replacing three players who have given everything with maximum intensity for 45 minutes with three more who do the same.”