Nope those top coaches like the idea of squad rotation and competition for places and dont share this idea that the players are so mentally fragile that competition is too stressful.
Okay, I didn't want to answer anymore, but let it be. In case the "1982" in your username is your birth-date, you are young enough, so in 20-30 years you may learn some things and come to different conclusions. I certainly and ignorantly didn't understand many things of this game at your age... Didn't understand some basic things, when I finished my carrier as a player and started to pick up many things when became a coach. When I started coaching, I understood half of what understood, when I left it, more than 10 yrs later... So:
- All coaches only "like the idea of squad rotation" - if the rotation is done for a specific purpose. Be it resting someone, injuries, easy games, difficult games, defensive games, attacking games, tactical changes, looking at upcoming games, or they simply rest a player because they want to send a message to him (that otherwise have been told 50 times verbally).
- There's one thing a good coach NEVER does, namely playing someone or resting someone, because the CROWD or the press demands that.
- Otherwise coaches do not like to rotate, they usually trust their ideal and chosen players, even if their form is not the best.
"Rotation" AND "competition" are not the same phenomena, for two obvious reasons:
- "Rotations" are done by the coach, taking sole responsibilities for the consequences.
- "Competition" is NOT the coach's task, it depends on the individual players, if they like, will, are able to or want to compete.
Hence, when you simply try to mix up rotation with competition, you simply fail at the first part of the sentence.
QUESTION:
If some players were "
so mentally fragile that competition is too stressful" for them - as you say - then I obviously need to ask: How long is the period when he is strong enough and to have been competing all the time? - according to you, that is. Asking because:
- If he is 20, most probably he needs to compete with a predecessor in the same team. (If he is not good enough to take that place instantly).
- If he is 34 years old, most probably he needs to compete with a young one to keep his place. Fine.
But what does he do in between, during all those 14 years?
- Competes all the time, because it is necessary, just due to your idea?
- Competes all the time, even if there's nobody to compete with, because it has become an integral part of his nature?
- Competes all the time, because your ideal coach cannot live without competition for ALL positions?
QUESTION:
If he doesn't want to compete anymore, should he immediately leave the team, or there are other solutions to circumvent his obvious frustration?
QUESTION and example:
Is/was Ibrahimovic "mentally fragile" because he felt in Barca that "competition is too stressful"? Is he a typically "mentally weak or fragile" player?
Your ideas are not supported by any top coach for good reason.
My "ideas" are strongly supported by top coaches, specially that I learnt and studied these ideas from them. These are mainly THEIR ideas and not mine, whereas you constantly repeat your ideas, as if it was theirs...
this idea that competition leads to frustration for players and they should play regardless of how they perform
I've never said anything even similar or close to that. I don't believe players should play "regardless how they perform", but I believe in the principle (and almost all of those top-coaches do as well), that a few bad or unlucky games for a player, is not necessarily enough to bench him or giving up on him.
There's one exception: if the coach KNOWS that the player is not talented enough and will not develop anymore.
Top-coaches know that "performance" is a relative abstraction, because often a player is bad, just because others are even worse, etc.
(Example: last year Lucho didn't vote for the "healthy competition" between the two goalkeepers, although Ter Stegen was in bad form, the team lost important games due to his form, probably Barca could win the Liga with a present-Ter Stegen. There was another good keeper standing by, but he trusted Stregen. He was right and look at Stegen right now. Had he rotated him with Chillesen, perhaps the "frustration factor" would taken its effect, and Stegen would be worse than ever, or he may have even left in the summer).
Name one coach that does that. You cant as before.
I certainly can, though I'm simply lazy to do that, but Pep is a good example, just watch the setup and some games of ManchC this season. Some of his trusted players played horrible at the start, weren't "rotated" at all, and regained their form relatively soon.
The same stands for Suarez and Valverde, if indeed Suarez in ascending form, we will see that, the coach was absolutely right not to rotate him, under the circumstances.
Just remember one thing: players are always aware if they do not perform to their own standards, the coach is only needed to interfere, if their descending tendencies last too long.
