Afternoon guys.
Interesting read this morning on the Sky Sports website about Maurizio Sarri reluctant to rotate players:
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11564365/sarris-selection-gamble?basketId=11668
It's clear from his time at Napoli he only used 14 odd players in the league and very rarely rotated, this caused his players to run out of steam in the latter stages of the league where Juve leapfrogged them to the title on two occasions.
He's doing the same at Chelsea in the premier league, only used 14 players, the fewest alongside Wolves.
A cause for concern, thoughts?
Sarri reluctant to rotate
posted on 28/11/18
comment by Serial WUManiser™© - In Unai We Trust (U1410)
posted 10 minutes ago
Sorry diamond, but the lack of trophies and/or finals doesn't mask anything, imo. It highlights that Spurs are a very good side, until the crux of the season, where they fall to pieces.
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Not sure I buy that.... Chelsea & leicester had the title wrapped up in those two years, we were never likely to win. Juve were too savvy for us in the CL. The one most Spurs fans have real regret over was last years FA Cup Semi Vs United. Ex City we have been as consistent as anyone in the league over the past few years.... Not bad we you consider what we cant spend & playing away from home for 18 months... Not excuses but ex Leicester, its been proven you have to spend fortunes to win Trophies and right now our timing stinks as we cannot improve on the best side we've had for 30 years because it coincides with the stadium built... That's life
posted on 28/11/18
Not sure I buy that.... Chelsea & leicester had the title wrapped up in those two years, we were never likely to win
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I can remember Spurs drawing/ losing matches when it really mattered and failing to put any real pressure on Leicester that season. Spurs could have won the title that season.
posted on 28/11/18
But yeah Sarri's reluctance to rotate is an issue with me and could lead to his eventual downfall if he's not careful. We have too many good players to just leave out in the cold. They need to play sometimes at least otherwise why are they even here.
posted on 28/11/18
comment by Serial WUManiser™© - In Unai We Tru... (U1410)
posted 1 hour, 1 minute ago
Sorry diamond, but the lack of trophies and/or finals doesn't mask anything, imo. It highlights that Spurs are a very good side, until the crux of the season, where they fall to pieces.
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Cup games are fairly random, one off matches.
We lost to Chelsea in last seasons SF having been much the better team on the day. Man City were knocked out by Wigan. We went out of the UCL vs a Juve team that have gone far in that competition.
BTW Poch took us to the EFL Final in his first year!
In the modern game, cup competitions show up the depth of the squad. Come March April May the ability to challenge on all levels requires a strong and deep squad that has been well managed through the season to go in to those biggest games with a strong, fit in form team.
We have seen the likes of United and Arsenal sack-off the top 4 race and save players for Cup games to win stuff. So even big teams and squads like that struggle to compete on all levels.
Poch has never been blessed with that strength or depth of squad. Injuries forcing him to play Son at LWB for example in the FA Cup SF.
Under Poch our season has never "fallen to pieces" except after we lost that title chance vs Leicester. In fact if you look at our run ins in the last 3 seasons, our form has been very strong.
2nd half of last 2 seasons:
17/18 - P19 W13 D4 L2 (43 pts)
16/18 - P19 W15 D2 L2 (47 pts)
and if you take our run up to the point when Chelsea ended our title tilt in 15/16 - P20 W13 D5 L2 (44 pts)
We simply have not have the strength in depth to maintain this and have strong cup runs at the business end of the season.
This season we have had injuries that have forced our hand but also rotation - Dier, Alli & Eriksen have been very slowly brought back after injury and not played in key games when on the bench. Same for Vertonghen now. Son & Lucas interchanged, Lamela used and then rested. We'll see a lot of changes tonight despite it being a massive game
I see Poch really managing the squad carefully right now and still getting results, with the long game in mind as well as building a squad that can interchange easily and cope better with the demands of being in several competitions.
Hopefully this pays dividends at the end of the season. Id be confident we could beat anyone domestically, except Man City.
posted on 28/11/18
At Napoli he could be excused that he had poor squad players (mind Forza himself was annoyed he didn’t make enough use of young talents lime Diawara and Zielinski, and Ouar). At Chelsea he is making the same mistake Conte made. Barely beneficial in short term and not beneficial long term to just have a core group of 13-14 players especially when most of the core aren’t that good. Alonso with Emerson, Azpi with Zappa, CHO, RLC, Christensen, plenty of opportunities to rotate and create some competition.
posted on 28/11/18
The above comment comparing Jorginho to Moussa Dembele is one of the more strange comparisons I’ve seen on this website
posted on 28/11/18
You can hardly blame any Chelsea manager for not catering for long term, given the trigger happy nature of RA.
posted on 28/11/18
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 28/11/18
comment by Kunta Kante (U1641)
posted 3 hours, 10 minutes ago
The above comment comparing Jorginho to Moussa Dembele is one of the more strange comparisons I’ve seen on this website
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i thought so too...in saying that, Jorg has not thrilled me any thus far...despite many saying he's what keeps us ticking over...we need to be doing more, & if we ever sign a striker we might
posted on 29/11/18
That lack of rotation is due to Sarri being an ignorant and stubborn little git!