[Albion] Ch.. Ch.. Ch.. Changes

[Littlemo]

Watching Newcastle’s last two matches I wonder if Smug wishes he had rotated a little more. That team looked dead on their feet yesterday.

Yeah, Villa looked done in against Arsenal as well.

 

[Simster]

Watching Newcastle’s last two matches I wonder if Smug wishes he had rotated a little more. That team looked dead on their feet yesterday.

David Moyes is similarly short-sighted. I guess it's easier to keep playing your "best" XI and then moan when they all get injured than it is to gently introduce your whole squad (including some of the kids) and involve them all from the off.

Maybe this is down to a perceived lack of job security and one of the benefits of working at the Albion under Bloom?

 

[el punal]

23 more than any other team.

Yes we have the PL, Cup, Europe and injuries, but so have Villa, Newcastle, Liverpool, ManUre....

View attachment 171055

And your point? I think Roberto knows and understands a damn site more than us about game management. Referring to what I think you’re implying, about having the same players and not rotating the squad, I give you Newcastle. Two horrible defeats in the last week, 3-0 and 4-1, down to exhausted players not lasting the distance.

 

[Littlemo]

David Moyes is similarly short-sighted. I guess it's easier to keep playing your "best" XI and then moan when they all get injured than it is to gently introduce your whole squad (including some of the kids) and involve them all from the off.

Maybe this is down to a perceived lack of job security and one of the benefits of working at the Albion under Bloom?

Is he? I’ve thought that Moyes has tended to change players up between some of the games. He’s rotated more than some clubs.

 

[Swegulls]

Adingra must have played a lot. Feels like that anyway. He had a couple of games when he looked tired but was really good against Burnley.

 

[Simster]

Is he? I’ve thought that Moyes has tended to change players up between some of the games. He’s rotated more than some clubs.

AH ok, I stand corrected.

 

[el punal]

Does anyone know what the other end of that table looks like?

Very pleasant from my perspective.

 

[el punal]

I suppose what’s really disappointing is that we’ve still been hit so hard with injuries despite all effort to manage minutes.

Is it just bad luck?

You look at other teams, up and around the top who’ve made very few changes and have hardly been affected

And that could all change in a heartbeat.

 

[Hotchilidog]

I think the changes both forced and rotation have disrupted us so far this season, but I genuinely believe that by the time we hit that March/April/May run we will be all the better for it, with a healthier and more up to speed squad.

Just two examples being Jack Hinshelwood's meteoric rise and the recent upturn in Facu's form as he has got more playing time. Igor has come into the defence and for me looks a starter now.

The return of Enciso, Estupinan, Fati, Welbeck etc will suddenly add some serious firepower to a squad tithes been performing admirably in trying circumstances.

 

[JBizzle]

It's one of those things that I really don't get that worried about.

We've had some bad luck, sure, but out of that bad luck we've had Adingra come into the team, and Hinshelwood, and Duffus, and Baker-Boaitey as well as lots of game-time for Igor, Dahoud, Buonanotte and Baleba. Players need game time to bed in and, whether by luck of judgement, Igor (for example) now looks like he's at the right level, with others not far off.

If you keep the same team you run on fumes pretty quickly and some of our players have had less rest (Ferguson, Adingra, Mitoma) have struggled of late because they look knackered. The only one who seems immune to fitness/tiredness is Gross who's like a metronome.

Anyway, the more players that get to play and get game time the better. The last thing I want is a player having to start in a semi-final or final that's never laced his boots in anger in the first team.

 

[FatSuperman]

Adingra must have played a lot. Feels like that anyway. He had a couple of games when he looked tired but was really good against Burnley.

He's 4th on the minutes list at 1,020 of a possible 1,440 normal time minutes. Useless stat, but using a mean average, our players have 586 minutes each.

Gross - 1,193
Mitoma - 1,149
Dunk - 1,148
Adingra - 1,020
Gilmour - 920
Veltman - 882
Ferguson - 860
Pedro - 842
van Hecke 838
Steele - 810
Verbruggen - 630
March - 559
Webster - 540
Julio - 539
Estupinan - 496
Baleba - 480
Milner - 468
Dahoud - 454
Welbeck - 415
Lallana - 413
Hinshelwood - 303
Buonanotte - 298
Fati - 290
Lamptey - 172
Encisco - 69
Moder - 19
Baker-Boaity - 12

 

[macbeth]

Watching Newcastle’s last two matches I wonder if Smug wishes he had rotated a little more. That team looked dead on their feet yesterday.

this is the thing though. the likes of villa and newcastle don’t need to rotate as much as they can just go and spend £80M in january if they need new bodies that badly. I hope we spend a bit in january but it most likely won’t be anywhere near the likes of others. therefore a longer term play makes sense for us

 

[The Fits]

Despite him being unfashionable I actually reckon the vastly experienced Moyes might know a thing or two about balancing lots of matches.

 

[WATFORD zero]

He's 4th on the minutes list at 1,020 of a possible 1,440 normal time minutes. Useless stat, but using a mean average, our players have 586 minutes each.

Gross - 1,193
Mitoma - 1,149
Dunk - 1,148
Adingra - 1,020
Gilmour - 920
Veltman - 882
Ferguson - 860
Pedro - 842
van Hecke 838
Steele - 810
Verbruggen - 630
March - 559
Webster - 540
Julio - 539
Estupinan - 496
Baleba - 480
Milner - 468
Dahoud - 454
Welbeck - 415
Lallana - 413
Hinshelwood - 303
Buonanotte - 298
Fati - 290
Lamptey - 172
Encisco - 69
Moder - 19
Baker-Boaity - 12

But Gross is 86th most used on Premier list of players, Mitoma 94th and Dunk 95th. There's an awful lot of players played more and a hell of a lot of Villa players up there in the top 40

@Uh_huh_him's link from earlier https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/mins_played

 

[Dave the hatosaurus]

Rotating the keeper must have affected that stat quite a bit compared to other teams. I wonder how many outfield changes we have done? Maybe "just" 57?

11 times out of the 67 league changes so 56 outfield, roughly 4 per match.
Interestingly whether by design or accident we have never changed keeper from the match before a Europa league fixture to the fixture itself. So Verbruggen on Thursday.

 

[Husty]

It'll all pay off if we get to the second half of the season with everyone back from injuries and much fresher legs than the competition, allowing us to pick a relatively settled squad and catch up on those teams above us. (Big, big IF there).

 

[Dave the hatosaurus]

23 more than any other team.

Yes we have the PL, Cup, Europe and injuries, but so have Villa, Newcastle, Liverpool, ManUre....

View attachment 171055

I am in favour of squad rotation in principle though i felt the period earlier in the season where we had 32 changes in 4 matches (Aek,Bournemouth,Chelsea,Villa) may have been a tad excessive. In our last 10 matches in all competitions we have made 47 and being as this includes 11 made after two away games in europe i do not think that is bad at all.
If you were wondering what our current total is if Europa League and Carabao cup matches were to be included it is 107

 

[Motogull]

I expect that lot will be close to the bottom of the full change table. Beaky has provided a thin squad (maybe indicating finances are poor) and Roy - a bit like the waistcoatwanker - is reluctant to depart from a favoured starting 11. Their back 4 must be very jaded and their main attackers seem to enjoy rotating time on the treatment table. They won't go down but there is plenty of woe coming their way until the season ends.

 

[Easy 10]

I appreciate with the current schedule, rotation is absolutely necessary.

What I'm still not a big fan of is the constant switching of goalkeepers and CBs. Some of it has been forced of course, but most of the time it isn't. The fact that we haven't kept a clean sheet in the PL since 2019 is IMO testament to the lack of a defined, consistent defensive unit. Dunk is the only first name on the sheet, the rest of them (Perv aside when fit) are all tossed into our random defensive tombola.

In RDZ we trust, but IMO he is not making it any easier on himself with so many unnecessary switches at the back.

 

[Machiavelli]

I appreciate with the current schedule, rotation is absolutely necessary.

What I'm still not a big fan of is the constant switching of goalkeepers and CBs. Some of it has been forced of course, but most of the time it isn't. The fact that we haven't kept a clean sheet in the PL since 2019 is IMO testament to the lack of a defined, consistent defensive unit. Dunk is the only first name on the sheet, the rest of them (Perv aside when fit) are all tossed into our random defensive tombola.

In RDZ we trust, but IMO he is not making it any easier on himself with so many unnecessary switches at the back.

I agree that consistent selection of the GK and 2 CBs is key. That said, I quite like what RDZ has done so far this season with those positions. Dunk is the only guaranteed pick. He's rotated Steele and Bart, which I think is fine at present, because it provides the opportunity for a young GK to be eased into the PL. I'd like to see Bart start most games from hereonin (domestic cups excepted). As to CB, Webster has fallen down the pecking order, even though he started a fair few games early on in 23/24. I've been a big fan of his, but he's the one player that doesn't seem so suited to RDZ's style (largely because his passing isn't quite good enough). I'm still not clear who should start alongside Dunk, and am happy for both JPvH and Igor to share the workload, and there's always horses for courses. One of them might demonstrate that they're clearly better than the other in due course but, for me, that is yet to happen.