Winning the rotation game

Looking at Tottenham last season, a few of their biggest issues were winning competitive fixtures with rotated squads and playing clean attacking football without their midfield maestro Christan Eriksen. When Eriksen was held out of matches to get much needed rest the creative spark would be missing from the entire squad.

Article by Chuck Booth @Chuck_Sec215

When it came to team rotation the only rotation that took place was at the fullback position with Ben Davies and Danny Rose splitting time with Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier. When the squad was rotated more than that, Tottenham would struggle to put out a team capable of winning competitive fixtures.

With the fitness levels that Mauricio Pochettino's pressing system calls for rotation is a must. Because he couldn't rotate the team effectively it helped lead to the late season collapse when the title was on the line.

Against Sunderland, Pochettino put out a team of Kane, Son, Alli, Sissoko, Dembélé, Wanyama, Vertongan, Dier, Alderweireld, Walker, and Lloris. Even though the scoreline didn't show it due to an outstanding performance from Jordan Pickford, Tottenham were able to dominate Sunderland with 'reserves' in the squad. With the need to play the first teamers in Champions League fixtures, the reserves will need to see more time in the league against the bottom half teams.

The League Cup games will mainly be played by reserves and u-21 prospects, and that's the mark of a true title contender. Most contenders have the squad depth to rotate properly whilst still getting results and that was one of the main concerns surrounding Tottenham with Pochettino's rotation policy.

While he showed that he could make the astute tactical shift at the half to ensure that Tottenham won or came back to grab points, he wasn't keen on rotating his first teamers out of the squad for less important fixtures. That proved to be the downfall for Tottenham at the end of the season and they'll look to avoid having it happen again.

Even though their most recent league matchup was against 19th placed Sunderland, Tottenham seemed to be humming - even with Eriksen on the bench. They rattled off 31 shots (nine on target) and maintained 74 percent possession in large part thanks to Son Heung-min.

Son was able to be the creative force behind the Tottenham attack in his third straight start for the squad. His corner deliveries produced dangerous balls and Son was unlucky not to grab an assist on any of them, which again is a credit to Jordan Pickford. If Son can keep up this production then Eriksen will be able to get more rest over the remainder of the season, which will only bode well for Tottenham’s long-term outlook, especially with Harry Kane likely out for the next two months.

This squad rotation shows the improvement in our squad depth because there are now five midfielders competing for the three attacking roles, with another four competing for roles in the holding midfield. While squad depth seemed like a large concern once the transfer window closed, those concerns now seem to have been overblown.

Pochettino seems to have adjusted his rotation policy and hopefully it will pay dividends in the long run, both in results and squad happiness.

© e-Media Group 2016 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of @e_media_group

Share on Google Plus