Rafa’s Rotating Days Could Be Over

By: Daryl | February 19th, 2008

Rafa rotation Apparently Rafa Benitez has seen the light and is willing to end his rotating ways. Especially if it helps him keep his job at Liverpool. Word is that with just the Champions League and a mad scramble for fourth place in the Premier League to focus on, Rafa sees no need to rest any of his players ever again: “They know the Champions League is an important competition and also they know they have two targets now, to finish in the top four and the Champions League. I have explained this to them. We don’t have to rest players with four competitions in mind.”

The obvious irony here is that resting players is what got Rafa into this mess in the first place. He’s rotated his way into trouble and now he’s going to unrotate* his way out.

I definitely think there’s a wisdom of crowds thing going on here. Many many people have been arguing for a long long time that Rafa should stick with his strongest team. That means getting Stevie Gerrard, Fernando Torres and all his other bigshots out there whenever possible and making sure games get won. Rest your men when they’re tired, don’t rest them when they’re raring to go. And so on and so forth. I’m sure everyone’s tired of reading the same old arguments.

But if Rafa is as good as his word then we’ll finally get to see what happens when he sticks with his strongest XI. Today’s excellent 2-0 Champions League win over Inter is a pretty good start.

*I know, I know. That’s not a word.

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Matt

All the referee did was set the tone with early calls. Inter never adjusted and brought a Serie A style to a European match. The flopping about and bullying style was not okay, was indicated early on and they kept it up.Tactically they came in unprepared, looked the weaker side, and paid the price with a slow man gone.
Charlton Heston

It's too bad the referee decided the outcome of the match (in favor of Liverpool) vice LFC earning the victory on their own. They won't get that luxury for the remainder of the EPL and CL.
Ian

If you're a team like Liverpool, who expect a Champions League spot every year, every league match is "significant". The match at Portsmouth was significant, when Gerrard and Torres were subs midway through the second half, and Liverpool settled for a 0-0 draw. So was the 0-0 draw at Anfield with Birmingham, when Torres didn't start. The rotation policy isn't something we're just making up ... it certainly has been an issue for Liverpool.
Ak

I think it's "irrotate" ...
Daryl

I disagree Micah. There are plenty of games where one or more of them haven't started and Liverpool's results have suffered. We know Benitez picks his strongest team for the big games, or the significanat games as you call them.

But there are plenty of games where he doesn't and the team pays for it with results and with loss of form. Otherwise Liverpool wouldn't be stuck in fifth place and out of the FA Cup.
Micah

Too bad he didn't start his strongest XI today.

Also Gerrard, Torres, Macherano, Carragher, Agger, and Reina have started every significant match when healthy/available. There goes that ingenious theory out the window.