Rafa Benitez has never had a job quite like this one.
Benitez is the manager who won the league at Valencia with modest journeyman striker Mista as his top scorer in 2004.
The Real Madrid B-team cast-off scored 19 league goals for him in that season – more than he had ever scored before, or would again. Now he has Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale to score goals for him.
Benitez is also the manager who then won the European Cup at Liverpool with honest but unspectacular players such as Djimi Traore, Steve Finnan and Luis Garcia who all played in the final against Milan.
Now he has Marcelo, James Rodriguez and Isco. This is easily the greatest squad of Benitez’s career and he needs to either win the league as he did at Valencia or win the European Cup as he did at Liverpool if he wants to keep his job beyond the first season.
His plans to hone a favoured first XI, a system and a way of playing have not been helped by a strangely quiet summer at Madrid in which Iker Casillas finally left but David de Gea has still not turned up.
He is expected to start with Keylor Navas in goal and Kiko Casilla on the bench. Both are competent and regardless of whether De Gea arrives or not, goalkeeper will be the least of his selection headaches.
At right back he must keep both homegrown Dani Carvajal and Danilo happy. Both right backs are talented especially going forward. Why the latter was signed for £22.6million when Real already had the former is a mystery perhaps best solved using the theory: "if we don’t sign him Barça will, so we’ll sign him even though we don’t really need him".
Marcelo is first choice at left back, while Fabio Coentrao is injured and has not played ahead of the new season.
The Br azil international will play as many games as possible and captain the team when Sergio Ramos is not available.
In the centre of defence Benitez has the security of Pepe, Ramos and Raphael Varane. And he has Nacho who scored against Galatasaray and is a trusted fourth option who can also cover at full back.
Real Madrid have been impressive defensively and with those players it’s no surprise. It’s what happens in front of them that will be Benitez's bigger challenge.
His first big problem will be filing the two midfield spaces in front of his back four. Toni Kroos and Luka Modric will start the big games and Casemiro and Mateo Kovacic will be their replacements.
The potential problem is that of those four only Casemiro is really cut out for the defensive dirty work the position requires. Kroos and Modric are so good they can do it, but it’s a criminal waste of their talents further forward.
Behind the striker Real will deploy Rodriguez, Bale and Ronaldo from right to left with Benitez – at least to begin with - playing Bale in the centre of the three at the player’s request.
It hasn’t worked in pre-season and Benitez has already hinted at the obvious fault in the plan when he said after the Galatasaray game: "The way Isco and Rodriguez play between the lines is not the same as the way Bale does.'
For which many will notice – both Isco and Rodriguez are better suited to the role than he is. Just as his power and pace are better suited to a wider position than they are.
In attack Benzema will take his place at the top of the team with Jese as his replacement. When 4-2-3-1 doesn’t work Benitez’s plan B will be 4-4-2 with Benzema the fall guy, Ronaldo and Bale in a very open front two, and Isco joining Kroos, Modric and Rodriguez in midfield.
It will be more than enough to beat most teams but will it be enough to beat Barcelona in two Clasicos and win the Madrid derby – the match in which Real have suffered so much in the last three seasons?
Benitez will not need telling when you manage Real Madrid you have to come first. He’s done it with lesser mortals at Valencia and Liverpool, now he needs to do it with the most expensively assembled squad in the World.