9 Isn't Rotation!

comment by Striketeam7 - staying humble (U18109)
posted 27 minutes ago
The worst thing about it is that it doesn’t help the players who might be able to push into the first team as they are playing with the dregs rather than being surrounded by first team players.

Take Dragusin - he has a RB next to him who is A) a kid B) really a CM C) second choice. He has Davies to the left (Davies was superb again last night, such an underrated player) who just won’t start Prem games. He had an Oak tree behind him in goal who tried to wipe him out at one point - how is Dragusin meant to build any cohesion and be first team ready.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You understand my point exactly

comment by PhilspursFGR (U3278)
posted 3 minutes ago
And it makes you feel sorry for some of the newer signings, probably desperate to force their way into the first team, but they get dropped in with a bunch of relative strangers. Dragusin in particular stands out in that regard.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Yeah and what’s the plan with Gray - he must be thinking if I stayed at Leeds I would be starting every game at CM this season. At Spurs he is our back up RB and can’t get a CM start in the league cup.

Djed Spence - I think the only thing keeping him going is that he knows he will be able to outlast Ange and the new Broom might give him a fresh slate

comment by GJ #COYS (U23170)
posted 1 hour, 1 minute ago
This is why managers are managers and we're just fans on the internet.

The amount of games we have to play this season - the same players can't play every gane. At the same time, you want your best players playing most games, so how do you rotate and keep winning? For the record, we did win yesterday. It all looks very simple in hindsight, posting about it on the internet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes but surely if you’re going to rotate, you have to have a certain level of confidence in the players you bring in and not do it to just to try and be clever.

We rotated last season, got knocked out of everything and then had to wait a week (sometimes two) in between league games which proved disastrous for momentum.

comment by Automatic For The People (U21889)
posted 20 minutes ago
comment by GJ #COYS (U23170)
posted 1 hour, 1 minute ago
This is why managers are managers and we're just fans on the internet.

The amount of games we have to play this season - the same players can't play every gane. At the same time, you want your best players playing most games, so how do you rotate and keep winning? For the record, we did win yesterday. It all looks very simple in hindsight, posting about it on the internet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes but surely if you’re going to rotate, you have to have a certain level of confidence in the players you bring in and not do it to just to try and be clever.

We rotated last season, got knocked out of everything and then had to wait a week (sometimes two) in between league games which proved disastrous for momentum.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

For me there were 3 problems with our approach:

1. Too much rotation - 5 players max I would say. At 8 players you lose any sort of cohesion and there is little benefit to the players coming in

2. Some of the rotation decisions - why is Gray not getting a chance at CM, why is Udogie starting when we have Spence who can’t even play in Europe but was one of the stars of pre season. We started Solanke presumably to boost confidence but then put zero creativity around him.

3. Certain players aren’t even good enough to be reserves - this is a category specifically for Forster and potentially Werner also. We have youth keepers, whom, if they are worse than Forster then we need to sack who ever the youth keeper coach is. Mike Moore who we turned down an 8 figure bid from Dortmund for in the summer can’t get significant game time because Werner and his pals were so diabolical that couldn’t get in a position where it was safe to bring him on

comment by Striketeam7 - staying humble (U18109)
posted 2 hours, 4 minutes ago
The worst thing about it is that it doesn’t help the players who might be able to push into the first team as they are playing with the dregs rather than being surrounded by first team players.

Take Dragusin - he has a RB next to him who is A) a kid B) really a CM C) second choice. He has Davies to the left (Davies was superb again last night, such an underrated player) who just won’t start Prem games. He had an Oak tree behind him in goal who tried to wipe him out at one point - how is Dragusin meant to build any cohesion and be first team ready.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a really good point. It was as clear as day that there was an unfamiliarity about partnerships last night. Dragusin was surrounded by players that don't belong or look shaky. How good is he supposed to be under those circumstances?!

The part that annoys me the most is players like Gray and Bergvall are kind of thrown to the wolves. They're only given substantial game time in a patched up second string with no cohesion. I'd much rather see them get minutes in a team working well so they can be eased in to a winning team, not blamed for a losing one. We were home and dry against Everton. They should have been given 15 mins in that game. What chance of those lads got? This could damage their progress.

comment by Striketeam7 - staying humble (U18109)
posted 42 minutes ago
comment by Automatic For The People (U21889)
posted 20 minutes ago
comment by GJ #COYS (U23170)
posted 1 hour, 1 minute ago
This is why managers are managers and we're just fans on the internet.

The amount of games we have to play this season - the same players can't play every gane. At the same time, you want your best players playing most games, so how do you rotate and keep winning? For the record, we did win yesterday. It all looks very simple in hindsight, posting about it on the internet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes but surely if you’re going to rotate, you have to have a certain level of confidence in the players you bring in and not do it to just to try and be clever.

We rotated last season, got knocked out of everything and then had to wait a week (sometimes two) in between league games which proved disastrous for momentum.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

For me there were 3 problems with our approach:

1. Too much rotation - 5 players max I would say. At 8 players you lose any sort of cohesion and there is little benefit to the players coming in

2. Some of the rotation decisions - why is Gray not getting a chance at CM, why is Udogie starting when we have Spence who can’t even play in Europe but was one of the stars of pre season. We started Solanke presumably to boost confidence but then put zero creativity around him.

3. Certain players aren’t even good enough to be reserves - this is a category specifically for Forster and potentially Werner also. We have youth keepers, whom, if they are worse than Forster then we need to sack who ever the youth keeper coach is. Mike Moore who we turned down an 8 figure bid from Dortmund for in the summer can’t get significant game time because Werner and his pals were so diabolical that couldn’t get in a position where it was safe to bring him on
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The treatment of Moore is a joke. He might not be ready, I get that, but to give him game time in pre-season suggested he was. Then he was bombed out of most squads the moment he signed professionally with the club. I'm pretty certain the whole thing was geared around a fear of losing him. Once we locked him down he hasn't had a look in. If I were him or his family, I'd be taking that treatment on board. If you treat people like assets and not human beings, they're not going to stick around.

Hang on!

On our first game of the season, there were people on here banging on about how good our bench looked now!

But now the bench players aren’t that good?

I don’t get it - is Archie Gray generational? Is Bergvall the next (insert Workd Class player)? Is Werner a no brainer? Davies a solid pro? Bentancur a rolls Royce of a centre mid? Odobert the guy to get past people and create?

The squad is bang average.

The manager is bang average.

That’s the problem.



I thought Bergvall and Gray did some good things last night btw and I hope they will come good maybe next season.

Talking about our academy players after the two preseason games was so naive.

Clubs do it every year - we do it every year! You never see them again.

Our wing options have to be constantly rotated from game to game cause none of them are good enough to start and only seem effective coming off the bench. That includes Son, until he has one of his purple patches where he's great for a month or so.

I might still give BJ another chance and start him against Brentford see if he can build on his late goal. He'll probably just be crap though and need Kulu to come on off the bench and have a better performance.

comment by Spurtle (U1608)
posted 1 hour, 28 minutes ago
Our wing options have to be constantly rotated from game to game cause none of them are good enough to start and only seem effective coming off the bench. That includes Son, until he has one of his purple patches where he's great for a month or so.

I might still give BJ another chance and start him against Brentford see if he can build on his late goal. He'll probably just be crap though and need Kulu to come on off the bench and have a better performance.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

How Kulu isn’t starting every game is beyond me, one of our best players