Obviously, with the amount of games we have to play every season now, we need to rotate the squad. However I don't think it's being rotated in the right way.
If I were in charge I'd have 2 groups of players. The first would be Finnan, Carra, Agger, Riise, Gerrard, Sissoko, Alonso, Bellamy & Kuyt. The second would be Warnock, Hyypia, Paletta, Aurelio, Zenden, Luis Garcia, Pennant, Fowler & Crouch. I would stick to a policy of using as many players from the first group as possible against the big teams, and the second group against smaller teams. When the first group is playing, the second group would all play together in the reserves. This way we would have the core of 2 teams that knew how to play with each other.
For example, against the better teams:
Reina
Finnan Carra Agger Riise
Gerrard Sissoko Alonso ?
Kuyt Bellamy
The left wing would be the only position rotated against bigger clubs, with the possibility of Crouch coming in if any defences have a weakness in the air, i.e Sh!tski.
Against lesser teams I would play:
Reina
Finnan Paletta Hyypia Warnock
Pennant ? Zenden Aurelio
Crouch Fowler
With the ? to be filled by Xabi/Momo/Gerrard, again possibly swapping one of the strikers perhaps for Bellamy if a defence lacks pace.
This team should be good enough to beat lesser teams like Watford & Charlton, especially if they play together regularly.
I want to make it clear that when I say lesser teams I mean the ones right at the very bottom of the table, maybe 5 or 6 teams. IMO our first 11 should be fit enough to play the other 30 or so games. The main problem with our rotation policy at the moment is for example, one game Finnans playing with Gerrard in front of him, helping out defensively & giving him more freedom to go forward, and the next he's got Pennant or LG there and he has to stay back. Footballers are best off doing the same job week in week out, habit creates second nature. At the moment our players don't seem to know what their role is from one week to the next.
IMO training & playing the way I explained above should solve these problems, but please feel free to add your input and correct me if you think I'm wrong.