The cult of permanent rotation blights Benítez's bid for title
Richard Williams
Tuesday September 26, 2006
The Guardian
The days have gone when Nottingham Forest could use a total of 11 players to win the FA Cup, as they did in a nine-match campaign, including three replays, in 1959. But this week's most staggering statistic, which states that Rafael Benítez has now made changes to Liverpool's starting line-up for 93 matches in a row, suggests a game badly in need of psychiatric help.
Yes, Benítez has led Liverpool to the European Cup during his time in England - although it might more accurately be said that his players led Benítez to the trophy. In terms of the Premiership, however, his Anfield Assortment continue to underachieve, despite heavy investment, and it seems at least possible that inconsistency of selection, whether wilful or enforced, might be among the root causes.
Plenty of managers will tell you that it is no longer possible to pin up the same team sheet on the dressing-room door week after week. The stresses and strains imposed by the greater physical intensity of the modern game, combined with the number of fixtures faced by the most successful clubs, make the tactical and man-management aspects of player-rotation an intrinsic part of the repertoire of managerial skills.
But try telling that to Martin O'Neill. When he arrived at Aston Villa, no one could look at the playing resources and tell you what the club's best side was. Straight away, however, he decided not just on a formation but on his best 11 players. And since his first match in charge, at Arsenal on the opening day of the season, there have been only the most minimal changes to that line-up, with Gareth Barry moving to left-back in order to accommodate the arrival from Celtic of Stilian Petrov in midfield. The result is currently available for inspection in the Premiership table, where Villa lie a convincing fifth - two points ahead of Liverpool, and without a defeat in six matches.
And look at Barcelona, the best side in Europe last season. Throughout the campaign that ended with victory over Arsenal in the Champions League there was virtually no doubt about the names Frank Rijkaard would be scribbling down.
Even now, when managers need top-quality cover for every position, there is nothing better than a goalkeeper and a back four who play their way through an entire season - or even for what seemed like season after season, as Peter Schmeichel, Paul Parker, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister and Denis Irwin used to do for Manchester United - behind a midfield and an attack that are enjoying the benefits of a similar consistency.
If you doubt that proposition, take a look at West Ham United. As recently as last May this was a team that, under Alan Pardew, seemed to have found its defining shape, with the personnel to match. In direct consequence, each player was giving his best. And then came Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano.
The two Argentinians are exceptional players who would command places in almost any club side in the world, but they were the last thing Pardew needed. Just when he had chosen his squad's best ingredients and moulded them into an effective unit, he was forced - for reasons still obscure to us and probably to him, too - to chop and change to incorporate the two stars. One win in six league matches is the result.
Football changes, and approaches to management change with it. But some truths remain eternal, and this is one of them: the best teams do, indeed, write themselves.
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