Dave the hatosaurus
Well-known member
On the way home in the car from the Villa debacle i suggested to a friend that the squad rotation might have something to do with our poor run of form and was quickly pooh-poohed.
So i did a bit of research comparing our starting elevens this season and soon discovered that the amount of changes between successive matches are as follows 3,2,3,6,7,9,7,9. To me that seems quite a lot, particularly latterly, and while i am aware with so many games this season we do need to rotate maybe the players will take a while to adjust to this.
While doing this a few other things struck me
1, RDZ is sticking to his goalkeeper rotation 2 games each Steele 1st then Verbruggen etc meaning if he keeps to it then Steele will start in Marseille
2, RDZ loves his left sided players (who wouldn't?) with Estupinan and Mitoma only missing one start each.
3, The centre forward / man supporting roles have varied quite a bit with 6 different combos Welbeck/Ferguson is the most poplar with 3
4, The centre back combos in the first 5 games were Dunk with either Van Hecke(3) or Webster(2) now seem to be swapping in the last 4 games between Igor/Van Hecke(AEK and Chelsea) and Dunk/Webster (Bournemouth and Villa). If that continues then Igor/Van Hecke will start in Marseille. I hope not as that would be hard on Dunky having missed AEK. On that, was i alone in thinking it odd that our captain fantastic having missed AEK not only started 2 days later but also played a full 90 in the premier league?
If you have read all these rambling musings of an old git then thanks!
So i did a bit of research comparing our starting elevens this season and soon discovered that the amount of changes between successive matches are as follows 3,2,3,6,7,9,7,9. To me that seems quite a lot, particularly latterly, and while i am aware with so many games this season we do need to rotate maybe the players will take a while to adjust to this.
While doing this a few other things struck me
1, RDZ is sticking to his goalkeeper rotation 2 games each Steele 1st then Verbruggen etc meaning if he keeps to it then Steele will start in Marseille
2, RDZ loves his left sided players (who wouldn't?) with Estupinan and Mitoma only missing one start each.
3, The centre forward / man supporting roles have varied quite a bit with 6 different combos Welbeck/Ferguson is the most poplar with 3
4, The centre back combos in the first 5 games were Dunk with either Van Hecke(3) or Webster(2) now seem to be swapping in the last 4 games between Igor/Van Hecke(AEK and Chelsea) and Dunk/Webster (Bournemouth and Villa). If that continues then Igor/Van Hecke will start in Marseille. I hope not as that would be hard on Dunky having missed AEK. On that, was i alone in thinking it odd that our captain fantastic having missed AEK not only started 2 days later but also played a full 90 in the premier league?
If you have read all these rambling musings of an old git then thanks!
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