For what's it worth, he doesn't quite look ready.
He's also a far, far better option than most of what we'll see on the bench and some of what we'll see in the starting Xl this season.
He didn't go downhill in his last few seasons at all. In his last season he was used fairly sparingly by Souness and still managed 4 goals and a good few assists. In the season before that he got 12 goals and an absolutely shitload of assists, yet was booed off by the thick arseholes at SJP during the last home game.
There's no blame to be designated here. Benitez took over a side who scraped 4th with a very mediocre 60 points (we accumulated 58 with Roeder and Souness) and had that side winning the CL within a year and the FA Cup within 2 years. It's easy to see why Benitez is held in such high esteem by that lot.