The current obsession with rotating players really reached it's peak (Or Nadir) over the New Year weekend with the performances of the 2 Manchester clubs in playing well below strength sides and suffering the consequences but why oh why do they and so many others do it.
Now the initial reaction will be "Well it's all these foreigners over here init" but is that the case,from what I understand the continental teams don't have thev same obsession,in fact last week Barcelona played 90% of their fist team in the 8 goal win over a 3rd division side in the cup,a fixture that would have had Fergie or Wenger playing the tea lady in central midfield.
So it must be the huge number of games we play over here well tell that to Lionel Messi who has played more than 50 games in each of the last 3 seasons and he didn't look tired at Wembley as he took Man Utd apart in the Champions League final,in comparison Wayne Rooney has played on average 8 games less per season over the same period.
To be honest I think we have to blame 3 men, Arsene Wenger Claudio Ranieri (The Tinkerman) and Rafael Benitez who really popularised the rotation system and seemed to sell it to the rest of the Premier League who used the excuses of fixture congestion tired players etc to embrace it.But has it been of benefit well England's players don't seem any fresher at the end of each season and the weekends results show that it has driven the common sense approach of getting the match won before you give your top players a rest into the bushes.
Back in the "Good old day's" of the 60's, 70's & 80's players turned out week after week on pretty awful pitches and never complained about being tired and yet we won more European trophies and the England team did no worse internationally than today's well rested internationals.
So will a manger be brave enough to start his best side each week because if they did I have a sneaking suspicion that the rotation policy would soon be shown up for the myth that it really is
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