BFTG Huddersfield

[floyd__streete]

Why was that diabolical human being Danny Guthrie allowed anywhere near our first team again?

[Angry Shed Sex]

He speaks very highly of you too floyd.

[Jano]

if the squad really are so unfit that so many of them aren't capable of playing 2 games in a week, we really are in trouble.

Disagree here.

2 games a week for the better part of two months in a crazy schedule even for elite athletes and it's guaranteed to take it out of them. It's not just going for a jog, it's all the twisting and turning, repeated contact and accumulated niggles you pick up when you play so often.

Anyone who plays in all those games would be shattered by the end.

Exactly, and it's not just our squad that struggles. Even the very best teams have to rotate their squad to deal with European schedules.

Except they haven't been. Clarke's been rotating the squad so much most of the players have been "playing" if you can call what they do, barely once a week.

[melonhead]

[quote="Maguire]

Disagree here.

2 games a week for the better part of two months in a crazy schedule even for elite athletes and it's guaranteed to take it out of them. It's not just going for a jog, it's all the twisting and turning, repeated contact and accumulated niggles you pick up when you play so often.

Anyone who plays in all those games would be shattered by the end.[/quote]

Exactly, and it's not just our squad that struggles. Even the very best teams have to rotate their squad to deal with European schedules.[/quote]

Except they haven't been. Clarke's been rotating the squad so much most of the players have been "playing" if you can call what they do, barely once a week.[/quote]

clearly nonsense

[Warfield North Stand]

I found it very odd to rest Mackie after the weekend when he can't play against Forest anyway. And not having Cox or Pog at least on the bench is just....
As soon as I saw the teamsheet I knew we would lose. As did most I would guess.

[BR2]

In reply to Mags and Wycombe-I don't agree that there is fatigue.
I could trot out stuff about the mighty Liverpool where some players played 72 games in a season (nearly all high pressure games) using a squad of just 15 and about travel, diet etc all being better/easier but strictly focusing on our club I don't agree with your comments.
Apart from Obita and Frederici all the players have had rests whether that be through suspension, injury or being dropped so the players as a whole have played nowhere near the maximum and nor will they in the coming weeks for the same reasons.

Middlesborough cocked up on Saturday with the manager resting Tomlin and Bamford, their best two front men, and thy lost.
They might well have lost anyway but I think managers just try to be too clever.

You are wrong about the top teams-Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich hardly ever rest players nor even Chelsea.
I take the point about a manager needing to look at players but there are U21 and League Cup games as well as 4 or 5 training sessions every week to suss whether anybody looks in form or is in fact any good.

Come the end of the season we will know if last night mattered but , unless a team is regularly losing, I do believe that the best players should play every game and players are probably more tired because they are told that they should be tired.

[mbb]

The comments about resting players has never sat well with me! Take the Coppell 106 team, that was a long Championship season and the only changes made were enforced ones through injury.

Players say they want to play, talk about momentum and ultimately you get a team that develops an understanding of each others game.

Clark is going down the Adkins road of over complicating this league and I want this man to succeed more than I ever did Adkins!!

Maybe if the Thai's back him in the summer, then he can assemble a squad of his own players that can take this league by the scruff of its neck.

But meanwhile a nice little trip to Bradford and a trip or 2 to Wembley will suffice!!

[Snowball]

If we were out of the cup, I'm sure the manager would be less likely to rest players
but right now we have a serious chance of getting to Wembley, and, if we do that,
we might actually get to the final.

As long as the club does enough to avoid relegation, I think our strategy should
be FA-Cup and Wembley based


There's another thread on relegation v Wembley, but I'd take finishing fourth-bottom and making
the final over finishing 6th.

[Ouroboros]

The comments about resting players has never sat well with me! Take the Coppell 106 team, that was a long Championship season and the only changes made were enforced ones through injury.

That's not exactly true though, as the 7000 who went to Highbury to watch our reserves will testify.

[melonhead]

also- its a lot easier to do that with a team that's winning every game

[Whatevs]

I'm gonna guess that resting players is a bit more scientific these days. You check the level of hormones/cortizol/testosterone/whatevs and relate results to an increased probability of injury/lower performance

[Wycombe Royal]

I take the point about a manager needing to look at players but there are U21 and League Cup games as well as 4 or 5 training sessions every week to suss whether anybody looks in form or is in fact any good.

For a start we don't have any league cup games and U21 aren't as competitivie as league fixtures. As for training that does not show what a player can do in a match.

Steve Clarke NEEDS to see how they perform in competitive league matches so that he can undertake the massive rebuilding job that he needs to do this summer. We aren't going to get promoted and we aren't going to get relegated so he has the perfect opportunity to rotate the players.

We have a squad of players, if they aren't there to be used then why have a large squad in the first place?

[Ian Royal]

I take the point about a manager needing to look at players but there are U21 and League Cup games as well as 4 or 5 training sessions every week to suss whether anybody looks in form or is in fact any good.

For a start we don't have any league cup games and U21 aren't as competitivie as league fixtures. As for training that does not show what a player can do in a match.

Steve Clarke NEEDS to see how they perform in competitive league matches so that he can undertake the massive rebuilding job that he needs to do this summer. We aren't going to get promoted and we aren't going to get relegated so he has the perfect opportunity to rotate the players.

We have a squad of players, if they aren't there to be used then why have a large squad in the first place?

Because we've got a lot of players we can't contractually get shot of in the same positions (right wing-ish, central midfield & before right back) who aren't much cop. Partly because of the horrendous injury list we had not that long ago too.

I don't really see how chucking them all in at once in a system he doesn't normally play really helps assess who's worth keeping.

And in terms of resting players, well that's what 4 of the last 6/8 are for (assuming we might make the Final), when we're safe, which we aren't yet.

[mbb]

The comments about resting players has never sat well with me! Take the Coppell 106 team, that was a long Championship season and the only changes made were enforced ones through injury.

That's not exactly true though, as the 7000 who went to Highbury to watch our reserves will testify.

And that was a cup game, not a league game!

[Ouroboros]

So the implication is that you'd rather Clarke had rasted players for Derby than Huddesfield?

It's a question of priorities then, not of whether there is rotation at all. The lack of 1st 11 players in the cup games under Coppell is not something I remember with fondness, tbh.

[Ian Royal]

So the implication is that you'd rather Clarke had rasted players for Derby than Huddesfield?

It's a question of priorities then, not of whether there is rotation at all. The lack of 1st 11 players in the cup games under Coppell is not something I remember with fondness, tbh.

It did us pretty much no harm whatsoever. As I recall, our cup record under Coppell was to mostly, if not exclusively, to lose to exactly the teams you'd expect us to, and dispatch those below us.

But I think the implication is that Coppell's side played game after game with barely any rotation rather than that the small rotation he did use was in the cup.

[Ouroboros]

It did us pretty much no harm whatsoever. As I recall, our cup record under Coppell was to mostly, if not exclusively, to lose to exactly the teams you'd expect us to, and dispatch those below us.

Well, if Clarke had rested 6 against Derby and we'd lost you could have said the same about that.

[Ian Royal]

It did us pretty much no harm whatsoever. As I recall, our cup record under Coppell was to mostly, if not exclusively, to lose to exactly the teams you'd expect us to, and dispatch those below us.

Well, if Clarke had rested 6 against Derby and we'd lost you could have said the same about that.

You say that like it's some winning argument.

[RoyalBlue]

if the squad really are so unfit that so many of them aren't capable of playing 2 games in a week, we really are in trouble.

Disagree here.

2 games a week for the better part of two months in a crazy schedule even for elite athletes and it's guaranteed to take it out of them. It's not just going for a jog, it's all the twisting and turning, repeated contact and accumulated niggles you pick up when you play so often.

Anyone who plays in all those games would be shattered by the end.

We are not the only team facing a hectic schedule, although the cup run has made ours worse.(Why do the displaced games need to be played so soon after their original date, rather than being spread out a bit more?) I doubt any other manager has been making 6 changes to the starting lineup and to fail to include Cox, Pog and Williams in the squad at all was sheer lunacy.

As for the other argument i.e. he needed to look at other players in the squad, if Clarke wanted to treat a proper league fixture as effectively a friendly then maybe he/the club should have the decency to refund the ticket and travelling expenses of the poor 187 fans who made the journey.

Oh and what the f*ck is all the nonsense about a 3-4 hour journey on a spacious luxury coach adding to their fatigue?! No wonder players justify their high earnings on the basis that they won't be working when they finish in football. If they get fatigued that easily they would be incapable of holding down the type of jobs that most of us normal mortals have to undertake.

[RG7Fan]

Six changes and a chance to see some of the players who haven't been playing recently and chance for those whose contracts are expiring to see if they are worth a new one, and on this showing probably not. I'm not going to moan at Clarke for experimenting last night as we have played Saturday - Tuesday for a few weeks now and will be doing so for a further two weeks. He needs to protect some of the players and give others a chance - how else is he going to assess everyone in competitive matches?

The cup game is more important to us now than the league and he needs to make sure everyone is 100% ready for that game. That includes making sure the regulars aren't tired and also the fringe players are match fit and ready if needed.

I am really not bothered we lost last night, the remainder of this season is about the cup and preparing for next season. In 11 days time it may only be about preparing for next season.

Nice post.

I was shocked listening to it on BBCRB but actually what you say above is true(ish) - although I can't believe that we have taken no points from 3 games where we should have had at least 4, maybe 6. Pearce needs to be taught (threatened?) not to back pass - sounds like 2 shockers last night, and we have witnessed some poor ones at home recently. Why not just turn and hoof (even if it goes out) - got to be better than what we've seen.