Liverpool FC Forum

by **fritzylfc** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 9:11 am

rafas decision to keep on rotating players is very annoying, is this practice about keeping the squad happy at the expence of team consistancy, i would prefer the latter.a team should always pick its best eleven. the liverpool of late has struggled with the rotation more so in the prem.i am sure things would improve dramaticly.

by **RUSHIE#9** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:32 pm

Lets face it, the rotation system is here to stay in football so the quicker we accept it the better. I am with you fritzylfc[U] that i don't like seeing players 'rested' but i think upto now in alot of cases rafa hasn't really had much choice about rotating players due to injuries. I think we'll find that once rafa has the squad that he wants there will be less player rotations.

by **Woollyback** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:35 pm

players play far too many games a season to turn on the style every single match and avoid injury. rotation is a necessity of today's game, full stop.

by **metalhead** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:36 pm

the Rotation system is the best possible way to keep player fresh before a big game. this system could really help us because last year rafa couldn't rotate the squad and thats why we were inconsistant because the starting eleven played every match without resting. The rotation system could also provide us with more options and could prove a worthwhile tactic.

by **darwisigila** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 6:47 am

as long we win i don care whether rafa rotate player or not but if we lose because of rotation system, any manager should abandon rotation system coz is nonsense to keep player fresh but when they play, they lose. i can accept rotation system if our situation is same as chelshit where you have a large squad of full international that can walk easly to any team.

by **Fernando Morientes > 19 <** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 7:24 am

With the number of matches we have to play this season, it for sure that all players won't be playing at the same level if they are playing all the matches. I think squad rotation is definitely the key to keep up with the leaders. Anyway, In Rafa We Trust(IRWT).

by **darwisigila** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 7:54 am

rafa will win for us........prem, cl again....................with stronger squad than we got now

by **Sabre** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 9:31 am

A common thought here is that when you are repeating your starting eleven, it's a good sign. But in nowadays football, if you want to compete in Europe, those rotations are necessary.

Besides, World cup year this one, hope the players don't end too exhausted -- regular players that also play the world cup tend to have injuries next season, and we don't need that.

Sabre

by **115-1073096938** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:35 pm

Rubbish and causes massive inconsistency.

I disagree with dropping players in good form full stop. When you have a defence that isn't conceeding goals i believe it should be left as it is. No changes made untill its neccessary. IE only an injury or suspension or whatever.

When you have a striker who is scoring goals, you shouldn't drop them in the middle of a run either.

What i do agree with is resting players when there is just cause. Not dropping them to give someone else a game. Let the team gel, gain an understanding in all area's and then you'll see the best of them.

The old Man Utd team that won the treble.

Yorke Cole
Giggs Keane Scholes Beckham
Irwin Johnson Stam Neville
Rudolph

It rarely changed.

Arsenal at there best:

Henry Bergkamp
Pires Gilberto Vieira Ljunberg
Cole Toure Campbell Lauren
Lehman

by **JBG** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:40 pm

I'm not a big fan of rotation.

I always say that you play your best 11 until they get injured or suspended, or occasionally, if they lose form. Sometimes you might bring another player in for a particular match, but by and large, stick to your best side. When injuries start amassing, then use your squad.

On the flip side, when it comes to the League Cup and the early stages of the FA Cup, pick a mix of squad players and youngsters, giving the senior players a rest.

Gerard Houllier once famously almost lost us a cup final by rotating Michael Owen onto the bench. For the big matches, you always pick your best 11, unless some of 'em are hit by injury.

by **maximus** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:42 pm

I think the only team in the EPL that can 'afford' to rotate is possibly Chelsea with their strength in depth, however Maureen very rarely does, apart from perhaps Drogba and Crespo

by **stmichael** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 3:01 pm

stu_the_red wrote:Rubbish and causes massive inconsistency.

I disagree with dropping players in good form full stop. When you have a defence that isn't conceeding goals i believe it should be left as it is. No changes made untill its neccessary. IE only an injury or suspension or whatever.

When you have a striker who is scoring goals, you shouldn't drop them in the middle of a run either.

What i do agree with is resting players when there is just cause. Not dropping them to give someone else a game. Let the team gel, gain an understanding in all area's and then you'll see the best of them.

The old Man Utd team that won the treble.

Yorke Cole
Giggs Keane Scholes Beckham
Irwin Johnson Stam Neville
Rudolph

It rarely changed.

Arsenal at there best:

Henry Bergkamp
Pires Gilberto Vieira Ljunberg
Cole Toure Campbell Lauren
Lehman

agree completely with you on this one stu. if you look back to the treble season, i think our back 5 played 65 games each. carragher got the odd rest for ziege but henchoz, hyypia and babbel hardly missed a game. the same pretty much applies now. if fit, finnan, hyypia and carra will play because we have very few other options anyway. the only question mark in the defence now is who plays left back.

rotation is fine as long as you don't do it too much. ranieri kept tinkering at chelsea and consequently they won nothing and he got the sack. one of my criticisms of rafa last season was that he tinkered too much in the games that really mattered. the prime example was when we had just beaten olympiakos in the CL. we played everton at goodison on the saturday. instead of keeping the side which played in the second half against olympiakos and were on a high, he made something like five changes, dropping finnan, garcia and alonso to the bench.

this is one of chelsea's main strengths at the moment. despite their unbelievable strength in depth, you pretty much know exactly what their best team is when everybody is fit.

by **woof woof !** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 3:55 pm

I'm of the old school that says "If they're fit ,you play your best eleven . There is however a case to be made for rotation due to the sheer number of games that successful teams now have to contend with ,Premiership , FA cup , Carling Cup , Champions league , Supercup and the odd shindig down the road in Japan and of course if that wasn't enough the more successful players also have a significant amount of International football to play in.

I guess in this modern age the mgr has to rotate the squad just to keep them from dropping dead through exhaustion

, I would however like to see a regular settled eleven for the priority competitions , i.e premiership and Champions league , but again whan a coach alters tactics to suit a particular game changes in personnel are often a consequence .

by **Judge** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:03 pm

woof woof ! wrote:I'm of the old school that says "If they're fit ,you play your best eleven . There is however a case to be made for rotation due to the sheer number of games that successful teams now have to contend with ,Premiership , FA cup , Carling Cup , Champions league , Supercup and the odd shindig down the road in Japan and of course if that wasn't enough the more successful players also have a significant amount of International football to play in.

I guess in this modern age the mgr has to rotate the squad just to keep them from dropping dead through exhaustion , I would however like to see a regular settled eleven for the priority competitions , i.e premiership and Champions league , but again whan a coach alters tactics to suit a particular game changes in personnel are often a consequence .

play the team that wins. I'm of the old school also, so its important to play a team thats winning, with little changes.

The old liverpool, would bring a newbie one at a time, which didnt affect the teams performance as such.

However, when souness came, he demolished the squad with idiots like mark walters, so it was no wonder we didnt win the title again.

I know we were an ageing squad, but it was a winning won. I reckon, if souness had been more shrewd, then perhaps the transformation wouldnt have been so dramatic, and we wouldnt have been suffering from league withdrawal so much.
imo.

by **JBG** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:06 pm

Rafa has rotated heavily, not always successfully. For example, while Djimi Traore seems to have a slight edge in Rafa's plans at left back, Rafa can often drop Traore and pick Warnock. Since Josemi has returned to fitness he too has been selected a number of times ahead of Finnan.

Last year Alonso was also rested a few times and I can see that happening again.

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