ConnO'var wrote:Bad Bob wrote:Look at these numbers and tell me, how are we rotating less of late?
With due respect mate, but presented like that, it's nigh on impossible to see how we are rotating less. I think you'll find that the majority of the folks who do not agree with rotation are continously harping on about not rotating the spine of the team. These are the critical areas of the team comprising of the GK, the 2 Centrebacks, the 2 central midfielders and at least 1 of the 2 strikers.
The point of contention has always been that these are the positions you don't want to mess with too much as you'll really fark up the rhythm, and to a lesser extent, the balance of the team.
Based on the data you provided in the part of your post I didn't quote, I put together a graphical representation of the degree of rotation that we have had over the last 5 games (as the improvements seemed to have come over the last 5 games) as compared to the amount of rotation that the team has had over the course of this season to date.
From the graph, I think it becomes much clearer, that with the reduction in rotation in these key areas and the unexpected finding that we've rotated the wings less as well, that "Rotation" or rather the reduction of the degree of it, has played a significant part in us playing much, much better.
So it's not that Rafa is still rotating that is the issue... It's the fact that he's not doing it willy nilly anymore. Point has always been to do it sensibly especially so in the spine of the team.
Inconclusive? - Maybe.
Other factors involved? - Definitely.
Coincidence? - I don't think so.
Excuse me but the seat on the anti-rotation bus still feels pretty comfortable.
Note: (or more accurately... disclaimers!)
1. Data was gathered from post and not conditioned or researched or verified by me.
2. Rotation factor is calculated using the number of times the position was rotated divided by the number of games in the chosen window analysed.
3. Forced and unforced rotation was not considered so there is definitely an element of uncertainty in the data as it precludes the human element.
4. However, for 5 games, the rotation factor is much more sensitive as the denominator is much smaller over 5 games as compared to the 23 games so far. So if anything, the rotation factor is conservative over 5 games as they can only be multiples of 0.2.
With all due respect to you, mate, lovely graphs but I completely and utterly disagree with them. Looking at the last five games is all well and good but, of course, those last five games include the Fulham game where Rafa did the rarest of things: kept the same side as the one that trounced Besiktas. Why'd he do it? I'm sure to reward the lads who stuck 8 past Besiktas but also, I'm sure, to have a bit of fun with the press. After all, he did name an unchanged side after 99 games of rotation last year, mostly to take the mick out of the press pack that questions his rotation policy so much and were dying to write about "100 straight games of rotation". Did he "see the light" then? No he didn't--he went right back to rotating. Has he seen the light after the Besiktas match? Nope. Rotation is back and going strong. The Fulham match, quite simply, was an anomaly not a turning point and it should not be used to suggest that Rafa's changed tack with respect to rotation. Don't believe me? Well, let's just see what the numbers look like after another five games or so. I'm confident that Rafa will still be averaging his usual 3-4 changes a game.
Now, to the point that Peewee raised in the match thread and that you've gamely taken up here, Conn: this notion that Rafa's not rotating the spine of the team much anymore. For the life of me, I can't see how anyone can make this claim after watching the lads over the past week: he's fielded 3 different CM pairs in the last three games, mate! Moreover, in the course of the season so far (23 games), he's switched the CM pairing around 19 times. I'll repeat that: 19 fookin' times!!!!
Turning to strikers, and we see that he's paired Torres with a different strike partner over the last three games--hardly the sign of a settled spine. When we look at the season as whole (again, 23 games), Rafa has only preserved the same strike partnership over two different matches twice. In contrast, he's changed at least one of the strike pair 11 times and he's fielded a completely different strike pair 9 times. That's plenty of rotation along the spine of the team by anyone's standards, I should think.
Look, it's simple folks. Rafa rotates. A lot. He does it when we win and he does it when we lose. How, anyone can look at the line-ups over the past three games and say that Rafa isn't rotating just as much as he always does is beyond me. I imagine that it would be easier for a lot of anti-rotationists to believe that Rafa's calmed the rotation down and that our form has come around as a result. But, the teamsheets simply don't bare that out. So, you fellas in the other ship are going to have to live with the reality of this situation: we sometimes play very well while still rotating. It's one of the greatest mysteries of the Rafa era and it's one of the reasons why some of us in the other ship aren't quite so convinced that rotation's the problem when we lose form.
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