Swings and Roundabouts
Last updated : 23 September 2007 By Adam Bryant
Rotational policies are all good and well when it is important to ensure key players don't burn out, particularly with a busy fixture schedule.
However, unless there is a genuine need to rest a player, it is important to balance fitness levels with skill and ability.
Benitez's tactics have helped Liverpool to two Champions League finals in the last three years, winning memorably in Istanbul and unluckily losing out in Athens.
But both those two campaigns came at a price. Premiership form suffered as the Reds finished 21 points behind last season's winners Manchester United and a massive 37 points behind Chelsea in 2005.
Holding back your best players for bigger games may earn you plaudits and a good Champions League run, but it is essential to beat lower Premiership sides, home and away, if you want to challenge for the title.
Rafa did play full strength sides in the first four Premiership games and beat Aston Villa, Sunderland and Derby in style and were unlucky not to have claimed three points from Chelsea too.
But, with concern about players' fitness levels after international duty, Benitez has tried to rest key men in the hope that the replacments are able to overcome weaker opposition.
On both occasions, against Portsmouth and Birmingham, that tactic has failed, and even the arrival of the big guns off the bench hasn't been able to help Liverpool steal the points.
Each game needs to be played with the strongest eleven available. If we then take the lead and look in control of the game, consider giving the star men an early bath, but only once the points look to be in the bag.
If Liverpool want to win the Premiership title Rafael Benitez has to learn not to take the opposition for granted. Play each game as if its a cup final, because lesser clubs will in the hope of snatching a point from the game, as Harry Redknapp and Steve Bruce will testify.
