I think that is what Ron will do....important to us to go through in the Europa and far too early to start resting players. A couple of early Saints goals and he may sub three players, but I suspect he will start with the best team (apart from odd players where there would be another reason to rest them). Ron doesn't do chicken.
I agree, Fran. Ron is of the opinion that superbly fit professional footballers are more than capable of playing twice a week, and actually enjoy it. They will need resting later in the season, but for now, I'm sure he'll play the strongest possible team in every match.
That's not the issue for me - it's the injury risk. Why risk an injury to our best players when we're 3-0 up against an inferior side. Now we can't rest everyone but Mane is a must rest for me due to the amount of times he's bound to get hacked at if he plays.
Any player can get injured at any time, so resting him to avoid injury doesn't mean he won't get injured in the next game. You surely have to play your strongest team until the need to rest players arrives later on.
So if Mane breaks his leg against Vitesse you'll still be happy he played? WE ARE 3-0 UP. THERE IS NO POINT IN RISKING MANE IN A GAME WHERE WE DON'T NEED HIM. Playing him in one less game reduces the chances he will get injured. It seems foolish to play our best attacking player in a game where we can afford to lose 2-0! I remember back to the times where we struggled to score goals and we really can't afford to shoot ourselves in the foot before we've even played a PL game.
Thinking we should play Mane doesn't equal being ecstatic if he breaks a leg. Ron may select a player for any reason, but I bet at this stage of the season fearing he will be injured won't be one of them. Would be different if he was nursing an injury mid-season and we had a must win game coming up, but there is no reason to think he is at a massive risk of injury in this game. And all our players are important....you could say rest our CBs in case they get injured.
I agree with you about the injury at anytime thing, but don't fully agree with the second part and play your strongest team until the need to rest players. I think it can be prudent to 'manage' players through a season. Sometimes (not always), keeping playing a player until he needs a rest, can lead to it being too late, in terms of injury. Tiring limbs that are not showing injury can be building strain and stress. Now admittedly they have top experts monitoring and measuring, but keeping a player as close to 100% and as fresh as possible, does have some benefits. Right now though, I'll just go with what Ron does as he probably knows best.
That isn't Ron's way. I would rather he played a strong team, which may or may not include Mané, and score another goal. Then we can take off the key players and rest them for Sunday. There is no way on earth Ron will play defensively from the start on Thursday. Exactly. That's fair enough, I don't mean play your strongest team until they start to tire, I mean play your strongest team for a few games to get to the group stages of Europa and give us a good start to the season, say until the end of August. Then the rotation of the squad can properly start.
I never said not to play a strong team, just not play our strongest. We don't need to play our strongest team so we may as well leave out a couple. I'd be up for seeing some of our academy players get some minutes. I would quite like to see McCarthy and Seager play but that probably won't happen.
That's a rather hyperbolic argument: here's a quick alternative if we don't play him. So if we get knocked out of Europe you'll still be happy we didn't play him? And, before you say it couldn't happen, I'd like to point out that the chance of us losing 4-0 is much, much, much bigger than the chances of a particular player having his leg broken in a particular game. Vin
We are not going to lose 4-0, with or without Mane. I was using a broken leg as an example, there are plenty of other injuries a player such as Mane could pick up. Mane could get lumps kicked out of him and I would rather he didn't play in a game that is all but settled.
Not for me. Those academy players (not already established first team squad players) can have their time in either the league cup or a group game, once we've qualified. Probably not, but if they score early and those fanatical fans get behind them??? I am not saying play Mane, just trying to temper your apparent "Gung ho" #remembertranmere #rememberleeds
The team will be strong whether mane plays or not. There may be a change or 2 but why disrupt a winning team? Confidence is important and it would be good to start the PL season having scored a few goals in a European tournament.
One of the best things Ron did last season was play a strong team against Millwall. Gave the team confidence and for a new side, it was useful match practice. With Clasie out we don't have quite the same team gelling requirements. As for Mane. I feel we need to work a balance with him and Tadic. For me it's not quite working yet
Mane's little battery never seems to run down. Even after chasing all over the pitch for an entire season he's still full of energy.
Can we remember all of this when someone like Clasie has a bit of a slow start adapting. Just remember an awful lot of people were seriously questioning Mané after a dip in form at the beginning/period of adjustment. Now he's (rightly) seen as our best player and utterly indispensable. Just one to consider around December before screaming that Clasie/Juanmi or whichever scapegoat it is should be dropped/sold/flayed.
