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From the OS. Confirms what some of us have been saying.


City chief Roberto Mancini has warned his players to expect a rotation policy this season.
With the Europa League and the Carling Cup kicking in early in the season the manager knows he will need a substantial squad from flag fall.

And the Blues boss admits he is ready to chop and change his starting line up in a bid to avoid fatigue to both bodies and minds.

“We want to make progress in as many competitions as possible and that will mean playing a lot on a Thursday night,” he noted.

“You cannot play in the Premier League on a Saturday, then in Europe on a Thursday before coming back on Friday and be properly ready in two days for a Sunday game.

“That is why it is important to have an experienced squad with many good players in it. Of course every player wants to start every match, that is natural and I was the same, but it is not possible. Some players may have to change their mentality.

“They will have to accept that and understand that sometimes it is best to rest.”

Mancini has today welcomed England goalkeeper Joe Hart back into the squad and will have the Toure brothers, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Gareth Barry in harness before the tournament in New York.

David Silva, Nigel de Jong and Jerome Boateng will be on holiday a little longer after reaching the latter stages of the World Cup.

Well it makes sense to rotate, but its a fine line.

I don't want constant rotating like Benitez did - dropping players after having a great game, or in the middle of a great run of form. Dropping players for the sake of rotation, rather than for the sake of much needed rests.

Original Dub wrote:Well it makes sense to rotate, but its a fine line.

I don't want constant rotating like Benitez did - dropping players after having a great game, or in the middle of a great run of form. Dropping players for the sake of rotation, rather than for the sake of much needed rests.

Benitez biggest problem though is that he was rotating shite.

Ted Hughes wrote:

Original Dub wrote:Well it makes sense to rotate, but its a fine line.

I don't want constant rotating like Benitez did - dropping players after having a great game, or in the middle of a great run of form. Dropping players for the sake of rotation, rather than for the sake of much needed rests.

Benitez biggest problem though is that he was rotating shite.

Yeah to a certain degree, but players like Benyoun would be dropped for the next game after scoring a hatrick!

I blieve in rotation to some extent, but I believe more that players who have a fantastic game or are on a great run, should not be dropped unless its against much inferior opposition. Some players need a good run of games just to get going - Tevez is one of those. If he had been rotated last year he would have probably have been seen as a transfer flop. I think the same could be said for Ade, who had a stop start season for all the reasons we know about.

Ted Hughes wrote:

Original Dub wrote:Well it makes sense to rotate, but its a fine line.

I don't want constant rotating like Benitez did - dropping players after having a great game, or in the middle of a great run of form. Dropping players for the sake of rotation, rather than for the sake of much needed rests.

Benitez biggest problem though is that he was rotating shite.

But he would just drop Torres for no reason then leave him out for a few games, I would hate if Bobby started doin shit like that

Original Dub wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Original Dub wrote:Well it makes sense to rotate, but its a fine line.

I don't want constant rotating like Benitez did - dropping players after having a great game, or in the middle of a great run of form. Dropping players for the sake of rotation, rather than for the sake of much needed rests.

Benitez biggest problem though is that he was rotating shite.

Yeah to a certain degree, but players like Benyoun would be dropped for the next game after scoring a hatrick!

I blieve in rotation to some extent, but I believe more that players who have a fantastic game or are on a great run, should not be dropped unless its against much inferior opposition. Some players need a good run of games just to get going - Tevez is one of those. If he had been rotated last year he would have probably have been seen as a transfer flop. I think the same could be said for Ade, who had a stop start season for all the reasons we know about.

In the end though, Tevez & Bellamy were run into the ground & were clearly struggling by the end of the season, along with Barry. This season, if fit & rotated, they'll be flying when the run in comes around. As Mancini says, to be playing Sat, Thurs, Sun, isn't really on & imo it makes rotation easy without any major player being out of the team long enough to lose form. Then there's injuries & If you add in the potential league cup & FA Cup games then the 25 man squad starts to look quite sensible. I recon we can put out two teams of almost equal strength if we sign all our targets. Then if we get a top 4 spot, the depth of quality we would have, all used to the rotation system, fit & raring to go, makes winning the Chump's league real possibility.

WidnesBlue23 wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Original Dub wrote:Well it makes sense to rotate, but its a fine line.

I don't want constant rotating like Benitez did - dropping players after having a great game, or in the middle of a great run of form. Dropping players for the sake of rotation, rather than for the sake of much needed rests.

Benitez biggest problem though is that he was rotating shite.

But he would just drop Torres for no reason then leave him out for a few games, I would hate if Bobby started doin shit like that

I think he knew Torres was crocked & was protecting him. Also, Benitez appears to be a knob. For a good example of squad rotation you can look at the rags' treble winning side. We're potentially building the strongest squad the PL has seen since that one.

This speech is mainly for the fans. Every other day someone starts a daft 'first 11' post!

Ted Hughes wrote:

WidnesBlue23 wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Original Dub wrote:Well it makes sense to rotate, but its a fine line.

I don't want constant rotating like Benitez did - dropping players after having a great game, or in the middle of a great run of form. Dropping players for the sake of rotation, rather than for the sake of much needed rests.

Benitez biggest problem though is that he was rotating shite.

But he would just drop Torres for no reason then leave him out for a few games, I would hate if Bobby started doin shit like that

I think he knew Torres was crocked & was protecting him. Also, Benitez appears to be a knob. For a good example of squad rotation you can look at the rags' treble winning side. We're potentially building the strongest squad the PL has seen since that one.

If only we could get Karel Poborsky and Jordi Cruyff

WidnesBlue23 wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

WidnesBlue23 wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Original Dub wrote:Well it makes sense to rotate, but its a fine line.

I don't want constant rotating like Benitez did - dropping players after having a great game, or in the middle of a great run of form. Dropping players for the sake of rotation, rather than for the sake of much needed rests.

Benitez biggest problem though is that he was rotating shite.

But he would just drop Torres for no reason then leave him out for a few games, I would hate if Bobby started doin shit like that

I think he knew Torres was crocked & was protecting him. Also, Benitez appears to be a knob. For a good example of squad rotation you can look at the rags' treble winning side. We're potentially building the strongest squad the PL has seen since that one.

If only we could get Karel Poborsky and Jordi Cruyff

PMSL!

I liked a theory I was told Stuart Pearce wanted to do;

Play players while they are in form, while they are on top form they earn their place on the pitch, one bad game and the next player comes along until he has a bad game. It creates more competition, the squad will rotate steadily but most importantly the players who want to win the most will pretty much pick themselves with fight and effort.

Ted Hughes wrote:

WidnesBlue23 wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Original Dub wrote:Well it makes sense to rotate, but its a fine line.

I don't want constant rotating like Benitez did - dropping players after having a great game, or in the middle of a great run of form. Dropping players for the sake of rotation, rather than for the sake of much needed rests.

Benitez biggest problem though is that he was rotating shite.

But he would just drop Torres for no reason then leave him out for a few games, I would hate if Bobby started doin shit like that

I think he knew Torres was crocked & was protecting him. Also, Benitez appears to be a knob. For a good example of squad rotation you can look at the rags' treble winning side. We're potentially building the strongest squad the PL has seen since that one.

i think quite the opposite, i seem to remember they pretty much had the same team the whole way through the season they won the treble bar injuries?

colonel_muck wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

WidnesBlue23 wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Original Dub wrote:Well it makes sense to rotate, but its a fine line.

I don't want constant rotating like Benitez did - dropping players after having a great game, or in the middle of a great run of form. Dropping players for the sake of rotation, rather than for the sake of much needed rests.

Benitez biggest problem though is that he was rotating shite.

But he would just drop Torres for no reason then leave him out for a few games, I would hate if Bobby started doin shit like that

I think he knew Torres was crocked & was protecting him. Also, Benitez appears to be a knob. For a good example of squad rotation you can look at the rags' treble winning side. We're potentially building the strongest squad the PL has seen since that one.

i think quite the opposite, i seem to remember they pretty much had the same team the whole way through the season they won the treble bar injuries?

I'm talking about the squad they had which had cover for every position & lots & lots of attacking options. Of course if we had 4 strikers we'd have to rotate a bit more than the rags did but rags system had a partnership between Yorke & Cole which they didn't want to break too often. Over the other seasons, Sherringham & Solskjaer played quite a few more games though.

Just for the record, bad as it makes me feel posting it, here are the appearences that season in the order of Lg, Lg cup, Fa Cup, Europe & Total:

Schmeichel 34 0 8 13 55
N**ille G 34 0 7 12 53
Beckham 33 (1) 0(1) 7 12 52 (2)
K***e 33 (2) 0 7 12 52 (2)
Stam 30 0 6 (1) 13 49 (1)
Yorke 32 0 5 (3) 11 48 (3)
Irwin 26 (3) 0 6 12 44 (3)
Cole 26 (6) 0 6 (1) 10 42 (7)
Scholes 24 (7) 0 (1) 3 (3) 10 (2) 37 (13)
Giggs 20 (4) 1 5 (1) 9 35 (5)
Butt 22 (9) 2 5 4 (4) 33 (13)
N**ille P 19 (9) 2 4 (3) 4 (2) 29 (14)
Blomqvist 20 (5) 0 (1) 3 (2) 6 (1) 29 (9)
Johnsen 19 (3) 1 3 (2) 6 (2) 29 (7)
Berg 10 (6) 3 5 3 (1) 21 (7)
Solskjaer 9 (10) 3 4 (4) 1 (5) 17 (19)
Brown 11 (3) 0 (1) 2 3 (1) 16 (5)
Sheringham 7 (10) 1 1 (3) 2 (2) 11 (15)
May 4 (2) 2 1 0 7 (2)
Van Der Gouw 4 (1) 3 0 0 7 (1)
Curtis 1 (3) 3 0 0 4 (3)
Greening 0 (3) 3 0 (1) 0 3 (4)
Clegg 0 3 0 0 3
Cruyff 0 (5) 2 0 0 (3) 2 (8)
Wilson 0 2 0 0 (1) 2 (1)
Mulryne 0 2 0 0 2
Nevland 0 0 (1) 0 0 0 (1)
Notman 0 0 (1) 0 0 0 (1)
Wallwork 0 0 (1) 0 0 0 (1)

That's a lot of attacking players but overall there's some proper shite mixed in with the quality amongst that lot. I recon there would have been even more rotation if the fringe players had been higher quality & the front 2 weren't such a partnership.

Now I'm off to scrub myself clean.

........just like a Ballerina.

Maybe I'm old fashioned but IMO you should have a first 11 and play it whenever possible. You will get suspensions and injuries so that's when other players get there chance. If we play three games in a week then obviously one or two will get dropped but only if a player in the first 11 cannot produce his top form because he's knackered. Obviously anyone who's playing wank should get dropped to give another guy a chance, player's should still have to fight to be number one in their position.

The last season we were in the UeFA Cup, we beat Arsenal in a hard fought win at the weekend, followed by another hard fought win against Schalke (A) the following Thursday night. Travelling back on the Saturday, we had played the rags at CoMS on the Sunday. We were lacking in energy and 2nd to almost every 50/50 ball. We lacked energy. Even the following Thurday against PSV, the lack of energy showed and we struggled through.
That is a great example of what we are very likely to experience again this coming season. We are aiming at winning the league and cannot throw away vital points through players being knackered. Players are often accused of being a yard slow but at the level we are aiming at, it only needs a few inches too slow and a player isn't competetive.
We have a huge squad where most of the players are more than capable of being successful 1st team players. Rotating quality players should not cause too many problems for us. There will be plenty of games when we will need them.

john68 wrote:The last season we were in the UeFA Cup, we beat Arsenal in a hard fought win at the weekend, followed by another hard fought win against Schalke (A) the following Thursday night. Travelling back on the Saturday, we had played the rags at CoMS on the Sunday. We were lacking in energy and 2nd to almost every 50/50 ball. We lacked energy. Even the following Thurday against PSV, the lack of energy showed and we struggled through.
That is a great example of what we are very likely to experience again this coming season. We are aiming at winning the league and cannot throw away vital points through players being knackered. Players are often accused of being a yard slow but at the level we are aiming at, it only needs a few inches too slow and a player isn't competetive.
We have a huge squad where most of the players are more than capable of being successful 1st team players. Rotating quality players should not cause too many problems for us. There will be plenty of games when we will need them.

The rags' stats I posted shows that there was a small group of players they chose to play when possible. However I recon that if they'd had similar replacements, those players would also have had less games.

Players such as Giggs & Scholes played a similar No of league games then to Torres for scousers over the last few seasons. Didn't hear any complaints about lack of form etc.

Perhaps Tevez will need to play more to keep his edge but I can't see it being a problem for many others. If they can't run & put the yards in this season, then there'll be no hiding place, it'll be because they're not up to it.