Gerrard speaks out on rotation

[CAD]

Rotation and zonal marking seem to be everyone's favourite way of attacking the team when we go through a bad run of results and yet it's never mentioned when we go on good and sometimes great runs. At the end of the day it's Rafa's policy and one which has brought him a great deal of succe s both here and back in Spain, i really hope he does win the league and rams peoples words back down their throats!

Me too

Either we improve our squad significantly or Rafa rotates less. This won't happen ergo we won't win it this season. We are not there yet. We need better fullbacks and better wingers and one more ace striker before we can rotate the team as aggressively as Rafa does.

[CAD]

From the Guard

"Can anyone explain Rafa Benítez's ever more bizarre and bewildering rotation policy?
Barney Ronay
September 29, 2007 12:15 AM

The issue of player rotation took an unfathomably oblique turn this week. Rafa Benítez's decision to unleash record signing Fernando Torres on Reading's second-stringers in the Carling Cup, having just watched his understudies scuffle out a pair of goalless draws in the Premier League, was odd enough. Odder still, Benítez seemed to think this was absolutely fine.

"If you say to me Dirk Kuyt is a worse striker or Peter Crouch is a worse striker or Andriy Voronin is a worse striker then I would play Torres every game," he explained. OK, then: Dirk Kuyt is a worse striker. Crouch is much worse. Voronin is not only worse, he has long, flowing hair that he blow-dries and de-tangles interminably in front of the mirror after every game, privately fretting over whether he's using the right conditioner and then sneaking little glimpses at himself in car windows and other reflective surfaces to make sure his unusually smooth ponytail is still rocking it hard.

The big thing about rotation is, while it might look straightforward, only managers really understand it. There are certain comparisons that can be made with everyday life. For example, "managing" the contents of your fridge can present similar problems. If I've got a luxury Marks & Spencer fisherman's pie (Torres) which keeps until Tuesday, should I save it and eat the unappetising cannelloni (Crouch) that goes off tomorrow, or even just settle for a Pot Noodle (Kuyt)? If so, will I end up feeling empty and dissatisfied a few hours later (four dropped points in a week) and say oh well sod it let's eat the pie too (Torres implausibly wheeled out in the Carling Cup) in what would be a classic case of fridge mis-rotation?

So pressing has the subject become that this week a footballing think-tank sent me a whole page of really complicated rotation statistics. Apparently last season Manchester United did the most rotating in the Premier League and Reading the least, which is a pretty unhelpful piece of information given that they both had their best seasons in years. Alex Ferguson is even said to keep a chart showing exactly how many minutes his players have accumulated thus far in the season. This may or may not be true, but I do like the idea of him keeping a chart, filling it in when no one else is around, trying to decide which colour to do for Giggsy and muttering things like "Anderson ... three minutes Everton ... Christ ... CARLOS! ... CARLOS WHERE'S THE CRAYOLAS GONE? THEY'VE GOT 'AF' WRITTEN ON THE BOX MAN ... CARLOS? ... CARLOS?"

The fashion for rotation has definitely coincided with a wider trend for superstar managers who say things like "it's not a about the players it's about the team" (translation: "it's not about the players it's about me"). What these rotating managers need to remember is that you can't take any of it with you. There seems little to be gained from an 85-year-old Jermain Defoe croaking some last words about "being ready to perform when the opportunity presents itself", before taking his final rest beneath a headstone that describes him as "nice and fresh with plenty of football left in his legs".

Still, the suspicion remains that rotation has always existed. Teams have always chopped and changed. It's just that everybody gives so many interviews these days that they never really disappear from view. Poor old Crouch is more of a pundit than a player now. He talks to the papers. He warms up. He published an autobiography this week, a book that seems to be more about being really tall than actually playing football. This is probably sensible. He might not get a game against Wigan today. But he will at least still be very tall."

[Red_Polo]

Don't let facts get in the way of a good argument.

How about a dull one?

[CAD]

How about a dull one?

Might be dull but it's spot on

The squad is not good enough for heavy rotation.

[cobain]

Might be dull but it's spot on

The squad is not good enough for heavy rotation.

That's a yellow card for you

[CAD]

That's a yellow card for you