Liverpool FC Forum

by **Ola Mr Benitez** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 4:15 pm

IMHO I think you do have to change the team on a weekly basis, but what I would say is, maybe only one position.

I agree with Stu to a certain extent (and that doesn't happen very often), not only the speed of the games but the amount we have to play this year (its almost a blessing to be out of the League Cup) will take its toll on the team. Our season started before most othe teams in the EPL and normally any teams who do start that much earlier crash around Xmas. I think Benitez is aware of this and has tried to give all his players a break to ensure the batteries last longer into the tail end of the season where a league or champions league place can be won or lost.

I have been saying for a long time now, the team as a whole is not performing that bad. Ok the results haven't been going our way, but that is mainly down to us not converting the many chances we are creating week in and week out.

For me Morientes is improving with every game he has played since coming back from injury. Im not sure about Cisse and Crouch but only time will tell with them. What ever you think of our forwards there is not a lot Raffa can do with them until the transfer window opens, and Cisse may leave us and be replaced by someone else. Or it might be that, like all strikers do, they are all going through a rough patch.

Once we start converting chances you will see a rise up the table, win our games in hand and suddenly we are up there with the Man Utds and Arsenals.... Crisis over!

by **Big Niall** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 5:15 pm

I don't think LFC players are so precious that they need more resting than any other team. Stick to your best 11 and make the odd change to rest a player. I mean Lampard plays every game for Chelsea as do most of the others.

This is where Mourinho excels (that and his ability to grasp the premiership straight away).

by **JBG** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 5:29 pm

I'm not sure that I agree with Stu on this one.

Frank Lampard has an amazing run of consecutive league games for Chelsea, and also plays in almost all their games. On top of that, he'll have his fair share of international matches as well.

Up until a year or two ago Matt Holland had played something like 4 seasons solid without missing a first team match. The majority of footballers, injury aside, are quite capable of playing 50 matches a season.

As recently as the 1980s the top teams had first team squads of no more than 15 or 16 players. I know the game is more demanding now, but I don't buy the arguement that a player is tired, especially at this early part of the season.

My own feeling is that you play your best 11 until players get injured or a player genuinely needs a break in January or February. Maybe you could occasionally bring in a tactical change for a particular match, but thats it.

I may be wrong here but I'm struggling to think of a team that won the Premiership using heavy squad rotation. Man UTD were always famed for having a strong squad but they only rotated at the end of a season when players were getting injured or tired as important games start to mount up. The same went for Arsenal. Even Chelsea pretty much keep a core 7 or 8 players, week in, week out.

You cannot establish a consistent team if the teamsheet is different every week. One or two changes, maybe, but not 4 or 5.

by **hawkmoon269** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 5:50 pm

Maybe....just maybe....Rafa's finally caught this on!

by **115-1073096938** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 6:29 pm

I'm not sure it is Stu really. Lots of people (myself included) got on this particular bandwagon last week after the Palace defeat. I don't think it shows a lack of football knowledge to feel that Rafa changes the team too much, I certainly do and many others would agree.
Admittedly it's unrealistic in this day and age to expect everybody to play every on of the 2 or 3 games a week and in this particular instance you are correct, but probably not justified to insinuate that hankereing after the old days signifies lack of knowledge. Lots of people come on here and trot out the old lines about when we were winning the league we didn't rotate etc etc don't appreciate the way the games changed but it's a side issue of the whole thrust of the post. The point of the post was that rafa changes the team too often and to too great an extent. I reckon you'd probably agree with that aswell.

I don't for a second disagree that he changes it FAR to much. My attitude is if something isn't broke don't fix it, earlier in the season the defence wasn't broke, he decided, for some rediculously stupid insane reason to change it and its cost us.

However... to suggest that players don't get tired, muscle aches, knocks and small injuries that stop you playing to your best level for 10 games in a row because they get "x" amount of money is rediculous.

I believe in rotation, rotation being having players who are good enough to come in and keep there place. IE... if you're winning, stick with the winning team, if you stop winning and players aren't performing, change the personel SLIGHTLY if you have the quality to do so.

When you have striker who's in a rich vein of form scoring every week, you play him no matter what. When you have a defence thats not conceeding, you shouldn't change it. When you have a midfield thats consistently controlling matches, you shouldn't change that either. Thats my opinion.

by **Lando_Griffin** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:53 am

Big Niall wrote:I don't think LFC players are so precious that they need more resting than any other team. Stick to your best 11 and make the odd change to rest a player. I mean Lampard plays every game for Chelsea as do most of the others.

Lampard doesn't run around as much as other players, and hardly ever sprints. THAT is why he plays so many matches. In both our games Vs Sh*tski this season, Lampard was annonymous.
Sh*tski change most of their midfield/striker positions fairly regularly, Fatty and Essien aside.

Liverpool FC Forum

Amazing rafa has changed the team 40 times

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