In typical fashion, Ryan O’Hanlon provokes some thoughts with his latest piece on ESPNFC about squad depth and rotation. First, highlighting the consistency of selection at Liverpool:
In 2017-18, when the Reds finished fourth and reached the Champions League final, Jurgen Klopp deployed 19 different players for at least 900 minutes. Last year, which followed the shortened World Cup summer and the extended 2017-18 campaign, they improved by 22 points and won the Champions League, but Klopp gave only 900 minutes of playing time to 16 players -- or fewer than the average Premier League team that doesn't qualify for Europe, let alone one that makes it all the way to the Champions League final. This season, thanks to added games and added time in both the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup, Liverpool have already had 16 players break 900 minutes. But when you're 16 points up with 16 games to play, squad depth becomes a moot point.
Depth, then, might be important, but not as important as being able to continually rely on your best players.
Then, assessing Frank Lampard’s rotation at Chelsea:
At the beginning of the 2019-20 campaign, Lampard had settled on a lineup that included Tammy Abraham, Willian and Christian Pulisic up top, some combination of Mason Mount, N'Golo Kante, Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic in midfield, and Emerson, Kurt Zouma, Fikayo Tomori and Cesar Azpilicuetaacross the backline. After a rough stretch in late November and early December, in which the team won one and lost four despite edging opponents on expected goals (8.2 to 5.4), he has shuffled in and out of a number of different lineups, and the results and the underlying performances have both suffered.
There’s no denying that rotation is an important part of management, especially midseason in England, where the number of fixtures in December and January are now bordering on harmful. But that doesn’t mean a manager should make five or six changes just for the sake of it. I am inclined to think that if the necessary physical prerequisites have been met, you start your best players and make a change or two depending on circumstances. Arbitrary rotation doesn’t serve any purpose.