Is Form a Criteria for Rotation?

[Leo No.8]

I'm still feeling positive about this season and if we get a result tonight against Wigan I think Chelsea have a soft underbelly this season and we'll do them on Sunday, suddenly everything is back on again.

 

I'm completely behind Rafa and want him to be the boss of this club long term; just to say that first before I start having a little bit of a moan about a certain aspect of the way he does things, because after all we all have our own ways of looking at things - that doesn't mean you're not fully in support of the manager because I most definitely am.

 

My major problem with Rafa, probably the only one which really frustrates me is the criteria he seems to use with regards to rotation. Rotation is absolutely essential in the modern high octane game; all those clever jounralists who used to scoff at Rafa changing the side so often seem to have gone quiet now everyone including Fergie is doing it.

 

But how do you rotate? Well the primary reason for rotation is obviously to keep everyone as fit as possible. I think its clear that Rafa has a handful of players namely Gerrard, Carragher, Reina and Torres whom he picks for pretty much every game. The rest are changed around for both tactical and fitness reasons.

 

My problem is I don't think tactics and physical fitness (how many games you play in a week or a month) shoudl be the only criteria. I think the one thing Rafa seems to be almost blind to, something he seems to consign to the archives of football as no longer being relevant and that is form.

 

Anyone who has ever played football even at amateur level will know how it feels to be in form. Form and confidence are intertwined and feed off each other, and confidence or lack of confidence can make an average player brilliant or a fantastic player awful. For me it is as important as fitness and even tactics.

 

There are lots of examples of players doing well in our side, then being left out for a rest or tactical reasons and struggling to find their form when they return. Babel and Keane have certainly suffered most this season, and if you pinpoint all the games they have played well in they have more often than not been left out for the next one.

 

We actually have a fantastic squad of players now (thanks to Rafa's outstanding dealing in the transfer market) and quality in depth at just about every position. However I can't help but feel many of those fringe players are underperforming because of the fits and starts in selection and not being able to get any synergy going with those around them.

 

When we're poor we lack fluidity, and generally you can look at the players coming in and out like Benayoun, Babel and Keane giving performances where they are completely lost as being a major factor. Against Everton Keane in the first game might as well not have been on the pitch and in the first leg Babel looked isolated and lacking in confidence again.

 

I think we're nearly there, Rafa has done a tremendous job at this club, but if one of those players who isn't Gerrard, Reina, Torres or Carragher has one or two really good games then keep playing him until he has a bad one. Form and confidence will help carry us forward along with fitness, quality and tactics.

 

Our best performances have generally been during spells of continuity of selection when the system has remained the same and the players within that system have been able to forge good understandings and find some form.

 

Rotation is an absolute necessity these days but I think Rafa should actually pay attention to an old saying which goes 'you're only as good as your last game'. It isn't true really, but there is a grain of truth in the saying and that is because many players will be feeling that way, remembering how good they were in their last game.

 

By all means pick Reina, Carra, Gerrard, Alonso, Mascherano and Torres every week. But try to help the players around them find their confidence and form by picking them on the merit of their last game. These guys like Babel and Benayoun are probably tired of sitting round and want to play three games in a week; so if they play well enough them let them do so.

[Gunga Din]

Form should be the primary factor in players being in the team. they have to be allowed to play into form.

 

i believe a major problem with the rotation system we play and the set up in general, is that those not involved in the first team play no football, they arent involved in the ressies, so you have players on the fringes, like Babel, Benayoun, Lucas, Agger etc playing no football, maybe getting 20 minutes a month. you cant expect a player to slot straight in and play at a good level.

 

If form isnt the primary factor, where is the incentive to give your all, knowing full well how well you play will not determine whether or not you keep the shirt?

[Magic8Ball]

I think Rafa wants too many tool and tried to be way too clever in using them. This league needs only a hammer and a nail - we don't need a plane, a jewson workbench or a screw driver ... Rafa insists on playing this person here, that person there when all that's required is the hammer and nail.

 

He's too subtle in a less than subtle league.

[Knox_Harrington]

By all means pick Reina, Carra, Gerrard, Alonso, Mascherano and Torres every week. But try to help the players around them find their confidence and form by picking them on the merit of their last game. These guys like Babel and Benayoun are probably tired of sitting round and want to play three games in a week; so if they play well enough them let them do so.

Benayoun was in cracking form before Stoke. Got his start (partially at Keane's expense) and then stank. He was dreadful when he came on against Everton.

 

No one outside the core has laid a marker down as far as I can see. Fred Milne mentioned Babel showing a bit of form in another thread at the start of the season but while he was so were Kuyt and Riera. They got the nod.

[Mad Scientist]

I think we're nearly there, Rafa has done a tremendous job at this club, but if one of those players who isn't Gerrard, Reina, Torres or Carragher has one or two really good games then keep playing him until he has a bad one. Form and confidence will help carry us forward along with fitness, quality and tactics.

The implication is that someone who has had two good games and then doesn't play the next is suddenly going to lose their confidence and form. I don't buy it. Why would they? Sometimes we go two weeks without a game (international breaks) - do all our players suddenly lose their form if they don't play for a couple a weeks? No. Why would a player who plays at the weekend, in midweek and then gets a rest at the weekend suddenly lose their form for the next midweek game?

 

What happens when one of your 'on form' players has a stinker? Do you play him in the next match (or three) in the hope that he regains his form? Or do you put someone else in and give them a run and a chance to build up some form? How do give players who aren't 'on form' - and aren't playing - a chance to build up their form? What happens when one of your 'on form' players gets injured, and the guy coming in hasn't played for months?

 

I dunno, but it seems a little simplistic to me.

[Magic8Ball]

I expect us to draw tonight even though we need the win. Rafa will set out cautiously again, tinker with few late subs and we'll not lose BUT WE'LL NOT WIN. I don't see rotation as the problem, I see our not going out to win as the problem.

Every game it's the same, go out to control possession. Great! but having the ball and not knowing what to do with it doesn't help much.

What's that game plan got to do with rotation? - Nothing. That's the point.

[budgie]

Benayoun was in cracking form before Stoke. Got his start (partially at Keane's expense) and then stank. He was dreadful when he came on against Everton.

 

No one outside the core has laid a marker down as far as I can see. Fred Milne mentioned Babel showing a bit of form in another thread at the start of the season but while he was so were Kuyt and Riera. They got the nod.

 

 

Arbeloa is a prime example of a player that has made himself undroppable - once a player shows his worth to Rafa he's very loyal.

[fred milne]

Benayoun was in cracking form before Stoke. Got his start (partially at Keane's expense) and then stank. He was dreadful when he came on against Everton.

I didn't see the game at Stoke but I understood he wasn't alone in stinking the place out.

 

As for the Everton game, its true he didn't cover himself in glory when he came on but as soon as we handed the initiative to Everton in hindsight it may have been sensible to switch Benayoun with someone like Gerrard as he basically ended up as an auxiliary RB. Shades of extra-time in Istanbul.

[Gunga Din]

Arbeloa is a prime example of a player that has made himself undroppable - once a player shows his worth to Rafa he's very loyal.

 

i think Arbeloa being undroppable is more down to the fact we had no other right back than down to anything else

[Case]

We'll win tonight. One, maybe two goals. We have to.

[budgie]

i think Arbeloa being undroppable is more down to the fact we had no other right back than down to anything else

 

 

But he could easily have shifted Carra across.

[surf]

Form should be the most important factor IMO. If you're match fit and you're in form you play, with the exception of resting those players for a more important game later in the week.

 

I can imagine it being very frustrating if you pay well, score a couple of goals and are then left out of the next game. Sends out the wrong message and is bad for motivation in my opinion.

[Gunga Din]

We'll win tonight. One, maybe two goals. We have to.

 

we should win tonight if we play to our strengths and play attacking football.

[Knox_Harrington]

I didn't see the game at Stoke but I understood he wasn't alone in stinking the place out.

 

As for the Everton game, its true he didn't cover himself in glory when he came on but as soon as we handed the initiative to Everton in hindsight it may have been sensible to switch Benayoun with someone like Gerrard as he basically ended up as an auxiliary RB. Shades of extra-time in Istanbul.

Demonstrated himself to be wholly unreliable and bossable though. He isn't a mercurial genius where it's worth the gamble. In the context of this thread what I'm getting at is that lads are given chances based on form but the reality is that our players aren't that good and this is our biggest problem.

 

Agree it should have been changed. Maybe even just put Kuyt back there.

[Mikey]

But he could easily have shifted Carra across.

Carra should never play fullback again. Ever.

[Magic8Ball]

we should win tonight if we play to our strengths and play attacking football.

That's the point though. It's not rotation or the method Rafa uses for rotation, fitness some magic runes stones behind the trainers seat. What matters most is we actually play to our strengths and play to win. We've not done that since Spurs. That game has affected the team more than they're letting on. which says how fragile the team's belief really is.

 

As ever I expect Rafa to smother the opposition and then be left wanting when it comes to actually applying the finishing touches. Another draw tonight

[Dan]

I do think its a frustrating aspect of Rafa's approach. Babel being the prime example at the beginning of the season Vs Mancs and Marseille. He was looking unstoppable at that point and hardly got a look in for a couple of weeks after.

 

Benayoun was mentioned against Stoke. Does one bad game (amongst 8 other wretched performances) mean you should be benched again after a couple of really good performances? I'm not advocating a run in the side for Benayoun because he isnt good enough imo - Keane and Babel potentially are though.

 

Kuyt has had his fair share of bad patches but is allowed to play his way back into form. Rafa doesn't allow certain other players that opportunity imo.

 

I think its the same approach with substitutes as much as rotation as well. Form doesn't come into it half the time, not that it always should mind with subs - it should with rotation though.

 

I'm right behind Rafa as well by the way.

[Mad Scientist]

The other problem with the 'form criteria' is what do you do if you all your wide players are off form at the same time (as ours arguably are at the moment)? Do you play the ones that offer the most in other aspects of the game (probably Kuyt and Riera) or do you go for the more hit and miss talents of Benayoun and Babel and hope that they can play themselves into some form?

[Earl Hafler]

I'm still feeling positive about this season and if we get a result tonight against Wigan I think Chelsea have a soft underbelly this season and we'll do them on Sunday, suddenly everything is back on again.

 

I'm completely behind Rafa and want him to be the boss of this club long term; just to say that first before I start having a little bit of a moan about a certain aspect of the way he does things, because after all we all have our own ways of looking at things - that doesn't mean you're not fully in support of the manager because I most definitely am.

 

My major problem with Rafa, probably the only one which really frustrates me is the criteria he seems to use with regards to rotation. Rotation is absolutely essential in the modern high octane game; all those clever jounralists who used to scoff at Rafa changing the side so often seem to have gone quiet now everyone including Fergie is doing it.

 

Ferguson has always rotated at certain times and in certain areas of the pitch but the major problem last year with Rafa was his style of rotation, where only two out of the midfield and attack were playing consecutive games. Others played a game and then were benched, played a game and benched again. It's no formula at all for player and team form and we suffered.

 

Now it's similar to Houllier in that certain players like Kuyt start regardless of form. 2 goals since October, a big dip in form since the start of the season and yet he's one of the first names on the teamsheet. In September he was a major reason why we were looking strong. Now he's a major reason why we're struggling.

Benayoun gets a run of games, plays well - better than Kuyt's recent form, in my opinion - and then is dropped after a defensive error.

 

Rafa believes that a player must be ready to perform at any time when called upon but, like Big Wayne says, it's difficult for players when some of them only get the odd sub appearance. Also, this rule about performing only seems to apply to some players. Kuyt or Masch can have a poor game and not get taken off. Keane and Babel have a bad hour and they're hauled off and start the next game on the bench. I think this has added to Keane's poor form and attitude because he appears to be being singled out.

 

The 4-2-3-1 is a strong formation for us but we shouldn't always be playing two holding midfielders. It could be said that the Mancs have a better pool of attacking players to call from than we do and yet they still don't play two anchor men like us.

 

Agger should be in the side and there might be good cause to move Carra to right back and play an attacking left back. When the left back, Agger or Skrtel go forward, Carra is perfect for covering the centre back position

 

Another worry has materialised in defence where two games running Cahill was left unmarked. We appear to be getting sloppy and concentration isn't what it should be.

 

I've already seen signs of the owners getting blamed for that.

[Magic8Ball]

Ferguson has always rotated at certain times and in certain areas of the pitch but the major problem last year with Rafa was his style of rotation, where only two out of the midfield and attack were playing consecutive games. Others played a game and then were benched, played a game and benched again. It's no formula at all for player and team form and we suffered.

 

Now it's similar to Houllier in that certain players like Kuyt start regardless of form. 2 goals since October, a big dip in form since the start of the season and yet he's one of the first names on the teamsheet. In September he was a major reason why we were looking strong. Now he's a major reason why we're struggling.

Benayoun gets a run of games, plays well - better than Kuyt's recent form, in my opinion - and then is dropped after a defensive error.

 

Rafa believes that a player must be ready to perform at any time when called upon but, like Big Wayne says, it's difficult for players when some of them only get the odd sub appearance. Also, this rule about performing only seems to apply to some players. Kuyt or Masch can have a poor game and not get taken off. Keane and Babel have a bad hour and they're hauled off and start the next game on the bench. I think this has added to Keane's poor form and attitude because he appears to be being singled out.

 

The 4-2-3-1 is a strong formation for us but we shouldn't always be playing two holding midfielders. It could be said that the Mancs have a better pool of attacking players to call from than we do and yet they still don't play two anchor men like us.

Agger should be in the side and there might be good cause to move Carra to right back and play an attacking left back. When the left back, Agger or Skrtel go forward, Carra is perfect for covering the centre back position

 

Another worry has materialised in defence where two games running Cahill was left unmarked. We appear to be getting sloppy and concentration isn't what it should be.

 

I've already seen signs of the owners getting blamed for that.

Other than Keane partnering Torres this has been the biggest mistake in our 4231 - playing 2 DM's this is where having Barry AND Alonso would have made us stonger