ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Squad rotation

Steve Flanegan's piece got me to thinking again about what I perceive to be the benefits of the competition.

The competition itself is of little apparent value unless you win it outright. Getting to the latter stages where people might take notice is all well and good but the big guns who fell out of the Champion's League usually draw all the attention in the latter stages.

In May and June, knowing that we may not win the competition outright, I was thinking that the competition would act as a lure for a better quality of player. This would stand us in good stead for the league campaign, regardless of our success in Europe. At this stage of the transfer window though, I'm starting to have serious doubts about this. Any players we have signed could be said to have had genuine alternate reasons for signing for us:

Jagielka did what a lot of the star players do when a team they get promoted with go straight back down again.
Baines moved because of the new broom sweeping all clean effect at Wigan.
Pienaar moved to get a game and to kick start his career.
£11M for Yakubu was too good for Middlesboro to turn down.

So what are the benefits now? The first round tie plus the group stage would provide the club with eight mid-week games, I think. Even if we don't go any further, this would still mean eight league games affected on the following Saturday or Sunday, a whole fifth of the season. I think that this, as much as anything else right now, might finally force Moyes's hand in relation to squad rotation and team selection.

With a small squad, Moyes is going to have to rotate players in order to rest them. He is going to have to try different players in different positions. He is going to have to stop playing it so safely with his selections.

Of course, whether or not this means that he gets it right would remain to be be seen. The signs in some games over the last twelve months have shown that he can do, just not consistently enough. Fingers crossed that, with two games a week over a large chunk of the season, he might just.
Kieran Fitzgerald, Dublin Posted 28/08/2007 at 22:32:16

back Return to the Mail Bag

Comments

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

John Holmes
1 Posted 29/08/2007 at 07:38:55

That’s a view that somewhat twists the facts Kieran:

Baines was certainly not swept out by a new broom, they wanted to keep him and are still struggling to find a replacement. Witness Kilbane being their left-back currently

Yakubu agitated for a move to a bigger club and got it after we met Boro’s fee.

Jagielka had the choice of several clubs but chose us because he supported us yes but also because we were in Europe and offered him a chance to further his career.

Keith Harrison
2 Posted 29/08/2007 at 07:54:45

Just watch Harry offload Nugent to Derby and try to hijack the Yak.

Deja Vu anyone ????

kieran fitzgerald
3 Posted 29/08/2007 at 08:06:07

I can see what you mean John, and I hope you don’t think I’m running these players down, they are good signings that are real additions to our squad.

I just think though that with Baines and Jags,if they had each been at more settled clubs, regardless of size, over the summer would they have been as keen to move. Of a Reading team that did very well last season, only Sidwell of their big players moved, and that was to big spending Chelsea. While they may suffer from second season syndrome this year they are a settled well ran club and did not need to let there better players get poached over the summer.

John Holmes
4 Posted 29/08/2007 at 10:34:59

I agree with you Kieran that we seem to still struggle to attract a certain type of player. Nominally, that players is the one who wants it all. He wants success but he also wants the footballer lifestyle (money, celebrity, WAG). That is why we miss out on the likes of... well basically every player who signs for Newcastle. But ultimately those players are often being released or overlooked by the likes of United and Chelsea for those same reasons. Whilst they can afford to pay them the money and give them the lifestyle that isn’t necessarily the kind of player they, or we, want. West Ham may shell out for Adriano but what kind of player are they getting? Arteta is the perfect antithesis of this. We don’t know how much he was given in the summer but you can be sure other teams would have offered more had he shown an interest. He is exactly the kind of player we want. He just wants to succeed in his football, the money, fame and adulation (ok he has the WAG by all accounts) seem to be fairly irrelevant to him. So long as we can keep attracting those kind of players I think we’ll go far.

Jim P
5 Posted 29/08/2007 at 12:39:01

Doesn’t squad rotation just make them dizzy? Can’t be a good thing.

Allan Hobbs
6 Posted 29/08/2007 at 14:08:18

Its all Jimmy Hill’s fault.

John - are you still making porn films?