Squeaky bum time: rotate, but don't screw

Burnwinter

See poll. Only ten answers so some possibilities didn't make it. Post up your qualifications and alternatives.

The goal's to keep our major trophy quest alive one way or another.

Assuming this non-outlandish starting XI as a baseline

Raya
White Saliba Gabriel Zinchenko
Jorginho
Ødegaard Rice
Saka Havertz Martinelli

Clrnc

You can only vote for one?

Burnwinter

Clrnc Hmm weird … I wonder if multi-choice polls were disabled when @Pepe LeFrits turned off a few things the other day. It does not seem to appear as an option any more when I edit or create polls.

Anyway, you can just post your picks in the meantime or make up your own …

Claudius

I think I voted Tomi for White by mistake. Based on your lineup, the rotations that make sense are

Tomi for Zini
Tomi for White
Kiwior for Zini
Trossard for Martinelli
Jesus for Martinelli

For serious games, I don't think we can mess with our central midfield of Jorginho, Rice, Odegaard. You saw the issues at different points of yesterday's game regarding this threesome, whether it was absence of role.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Don't want Jesus starting any more PL games. CL hero or bust.

Don't want Zinchenko starting any more games.

goon

I genuinely don't know anymore. I was of the mind that Ode and Rice couldn't be rotated because they were too important, but both looked physically finished in the second half yesterday.

I'd utilise Partey and Tomi more for sure. The front line I think needs some consistency.

Clrnc

goon White as well. You can see they don't lack will power and belief. But physically they are done. At the start of the 2nd half White was struggling to catch Zaniolo. By around 55th min he was letting balls go out for corners and can't even chase after simple interceptions.

Odegaard and Rice was a step behind and yet kept trying to press with their remaining energy to little effectiveness as the Villa players easily played around their slow legs. We got completed dominated in the 2nd half as we had no legs left.

I was surprised Arteta took so long to make the changes. We had plenty of opportunities to rest them previously but didn't as Tam pointed out. Of course Southgate playing him for 180mins doesn't help too

Qwiss

goon I think you could rotate those 2, certainly Rice, against weaker sides at home but the issue now is we have no more easy games. They need to keep playing.

Kiwior for Zinchenko is an upgrade. Partey for Jorginho should work in theory but Partey looks miles off match sharpness. I guess he needs to play to get it back though, catch 22. Trossard for Martinelli is fine, he's shown that. Tomi for White, its ok but I prefer Tomi for left back, I think White can keep going.

Resting Saka or Ode comes with a huge drop in quality no matter how you set up the team. Not sure we can do that again this season. So if they aren't injured they need to keep playing.

Claudius

it’s Bayern, wolves, Chelsea, Tottenham. That’s what you need to game out.

Claudius

Qwiss agree with this. These boys need to keep going. Hopefully some strategic investments in the summer give us more flexibility so we can rest guys in the fall. They’ll be knackered after Euros, Copa and Olympics.