Blues boss Alex McLeish follows the Arsene Wenger model with striker Christian Benitez

Nov 21 2009 by Andy Walker, Birmingham Mail

ALEX McLeish has revealed how he took a leaf out of Arsene Wenger’s book with his softly-softly approach to Christian Benitez.

With no Ecuador fixtures during the recent international schedule, Benitez has finally been able to have a well-earned break from competitive action.

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The South American striker arrived in England below peak fitness and, despite pressure from the St Andrew’s stands, McLeish gradually introduced him into the first-team fold with a series of substitute appearances.

And Big Eck has admitted he listened to the likes of Arsenal’s French supremo, rather than fan-power, when it came to Benitez’s early Blues career.

“He came and the word was he wouldn’t be ready for the Manchester United game. He hadn’t done a lot of running and he hadn’t done a lot of fitness stuff due to the shoulder injury,” explained McLeish.

“He then started light running but without any contact so to get him up to speed in terms of the Premier League – any player – is not easy.

“Arsene Wenger still talks about it taking time for players to settle into a club, especially the foreign ones, and you are very lucky if you can sign two or three players and they all hit the ground running.”

As for Benitez and his fellow strikers’ targets for the remainder of the season, the Blues boss added: “ If they were getting double figures we would be alright in this league, no doubt about it.

“If they don’t, we showed last season by getting up from the Championship as one of the lowest goalscoring teams ever, that we were still capable of winning games.

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