The Wheel of Death
By: CSD | February 28th, 2008
While slamming down bottles of Amber Bock and jamming to Paramore (love a chick that can rock), I began to contemplate the upcoming club schedule and Rafa’s rotation policy which seems to be dwindling away. After deciding that I’m comfortable in my own hypocrisy, I have to ask, “Maybe we should… umm… rotate more?”
Check out the schedule for the next couple of weeks:
02 Mar, 2008 Bolton Wanderers (A)
05 Mar, 2008 West Ham United (H)
08 Mar, 2008 Newcastle United (H)
11 Mar, 2008 Inter Milan (A)
15 Mar, 2008 Reading (H)
That’s a match every three days with the exception of Reading which will be after four. These fixtures are going to be rough with so many clubs battling for fourth position, we really can’t afford to lose any of them. After being buried by Blackburn last week, Bolton will be looking for a win at home to stay away from the relegation zone. West Ham have already beaten us once and shouldn’t be underestimated. Newcastle is the only team that I would say we could have a fair shot against while resting some of our key players, but then again we all know what happened when we tried that against Barnsley. Our strongest XI will have to face Inter Milan (have I mentioned lately that we beat them?) in the only cup run we have left. Hopefully, if we’ve had good results up to that point, we can give some of the starters a rest against Reading, but if not, we’ll need to ensure a victory to stay competitive in the league.
We need a lot of good results in a short period of time. Unfortunately, I think this is going to end in some injuries to key players. With Agger and others returning, we should hopefully be able to pull some decent rotations if needed. Only the mind of Rafa could possibly sort all this out. Time to earn that paycheck.
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Comments
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I just hope he sticks to his decision to stop rotating as much now, even with all these games coming up thick and fast. The side will benefit from a bit of stability and, aside from a few changes here and there ( a max of 2 per game) then stick with the same side. I’d bring in Alonso for Lucas and obviously Carragher will be back but apart from that, and maybe Crouch for Kuyt, I hope he keeps the spine of the side the same throughout these games. Babel is one player who would definitely benefit from a run of 5 or 6 starts.
Posted from
United Kingdom
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Could be a possibility. The only change he made last time was because Carragher had to serve a suspension.
Posted from
United States -
I have told you before… Benitez will never win the Premiership. If he is still in the job next season, you might just as well dream about the Carling Cup and the FA Cup - cos at this rate you aint even gonna be in the CL>
Oh well!!!
KTBFFH
Posted from
United States -
Agree with cfc069, Rafa will never, ever bring the title back to Anfield but that’s a side issue.
Looking at the upcoming fixtures a return to the rotation policy could work, okay their are critics of this system but come on, making three or four changes per game when you consider we are playing against a very poor Newcastle side, Bolton and Reading in the coming weeks, resting players would leave them fresh throughout.
These kind of fixture schedules are prime for rotation and it could be our last chance to gain momentum if we are going to claw back Everton, it’s sad to say it but they have been by far the better team in the City this season.Posted from
United Kingdom -
i disagree with CFC completely .. mostly because his name makes him sound like a douche ..
Posted from
Canada -
Haha lol chelsea football club and the number 69 rule, lol jk!!!
Seriously though, with a run of good results in the next few weeks, it’d be nice to see us gain some ground on Everton and distance from the rest of the 4th place pack. Won’t be easy, but the others have some difficult ties during that span as well. The derby on the 30th has become massive in the race for fourth spot.
Posted from
United States -
That’s the thing though Django, CFC does make a good point. We aren’t playing well and we haven’t played well in the league since the season before we lifted the European Cup.
I agree the derby is now massive - and we got lucky in the reverse fixture - and if we fail to grab all three points in this game I feel that fourth spot is well beyond us.
Everton are on such a good run.Posted from
United Kingdom -
when isn’t a derby massive though? regardless of where the race is, crushing Everton is always high on the list of priorities .. are you Moyes in disguise?
Posted from
Canada -
Indeed the derby always is massive, but as I said this particular derby has a great amount of importance for the race for the fourth spot. I also agree that we haven’t played well in league in some time, but bringing back more rotation could be the problem. I’ve never been a huge critic of the rotation, but after reading the comment of “we could rest our players against the weaker sides in the coming weeks”, I thought of how this has bitten us in the past, taking for granted our “superiority” over the weaker sides. For Christ’s sake, we had to watch Gerrard run the length of the pitch and bang in a rebound at Derby to save the three points. We can’t afford to drop any points against the “weaker sides”, with away fixtures at Old Trafford and the Emirates looming large. There are far too many excuses and reasons for why we haven’t won anything in league in far too long, but for the next while I am a big advocate of rolling out *the* best XI and seeing what happens.
Posted from
United States -
I think Django is looking at the game after taking all of the considerations into account, rather than purely thinking, ‘right it’s Everton it’s a massive game.’
After all until recently the Toffees have been miles behind us and fair enough each Derby is right up there at the start of the season as two of the games to look forward to but at this moment in time, it couldn’t really get any bigger.
I’ve been looking at their fixture list to check both of our run-in’s before the end of the current campaign and one game stands out, they play Chelsea right at the end of the season , perhaps we will have to rely on them to do us a favour come May?Posted from
United Kingdom -
You thinks right.
Posted from
United States
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