With the Saturday / Monday switch I would suggest the following teams.Players like Jackson clearly cannot play two games in 72 hours and personally I believe we need to prioritise the QPR game. In my teams I have only picked Thuram ,Wilson and Astrit to start both games.
It is interesting but in the 70's I remember one legendary Easter weekend when we beat Millwall 3-2 on Good Friday,drew with Orient away 0-0 the next day before the legendary Bank Holiday Monday 4-0 win over Chelsea. I don't off the top of my head recall Andy Nelson significantly rotating any players that weekend and also remember we only had access to one sub in those days.
Clearly fitness levels have improved since then and the scientific methods used now were starting to be discussedthen,but I would interested in how fellow older fans remember sequences like the one I detail above.Personally I was only about 10 or 11 at the time and wouldn't have dreamed about discussing resting players like Mike Flanagan for such an important sequence of matches.
QPR
........................Thuram
Nego Morrison Wood Wiggins (if fit)
Wilson Cousins Poyet Astrit
........... Reza Sordell
Massives
.......................Thuram
Wilson Dervite Lennon Fox
Green Pritchard Jackson Harriott
Astrit
Church
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Comments
As you say fitness levels are a lot different these days so the players should be fit (and they've barely had any game time this year anyway)
You forget, the majority of our squad will not be going into next week in peak match sharpness condition, that also has to be accounted for as well.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/dec/22/premier-league-winter-break-england
Professional players in this day and age should be able to play 2 games in 2 days.
Thuram
Wilson-Morrison-Wood-Wiggins(if fit)
Poyet-Cousins
Ajdarevic
Reza Harriott/Koc
Pete the Pole
Wendys-
Hamer/Thuram
Wilson-Morrison-Dervite-Lennon-Evina/Fox
Jackson-Ajdarevic-Hollands perhaps
Sordell-Church
You forget that not one of us, including out manager, has a clue what our 'strongest team' is, particularly with huge unknowns still around players like Reza, Peter Parsley, Nego, Fox, Lennon, Poyet, Koc, Thuram, and when available again the comparable fitness of players like Wiggins, Solly, Cort, Hamer..
I keep getting excited about 'cup stuff' but then i keep slapping myself round the chops that squad wise, fixture wise, league position wise, we appear to be in a right two and eight......
If we go out that is life but i want to know we gave it our best go as when are we gonna get another chance like this.
We could be aiming for a first.....
His explanation was that the core of their team key players like Cech,Cole,Essien,Terry,Lampard and Drogba had been allowed to grow older together and all of them needed to be rested occasionally.He went on to draw from his personal experience of when he was in the core of Ferguson's all conquering Man Utd team.
Neville said there were 7 or 8 key players who were rarely rested but the rest of the team rotated around them. The difference was in his opinion is that he and his colleagues were all at the peak of their careers at around 25-31.Neville said that when he hit 32 his fitness was still good but his recovery time was much slower and by the time he hit 36 he could only play 1 full game a week without it affecting his performance.
It is interesting that the science in Rothko's post shows that the 3rd day between games is vital in the recovery. We must also remember that although the Massives also play on the Saturday we will have the long coach journey to contend with on Sunday as well.
The side was about the same, but looked very lethargic, and struggled to a dull 1-0 win against a relegation threatened side.
Might be different, with the adrenaline of the Cup?
As well as the distances being greater, the intensity is greater too. For example, Koulossa and Brunt for West Brom against Chelsea completed 55 and 58 sprints respectively (Koulossa in only 78 minutes of playing time)**. Again, it's totally possible to play again a couple of days later, but not to the same intesity or result. You wouldn't expect Usain Bolt to be able to win Olympic Gold on a Saturday and then sprint a better time 48 hours later.
Rest is required between matches, not least in order to replace the used-up phosphate and oxygen stores in the muscles and to help remove any lactate and hydrogen ion by-products. This is why the day *after* a match is usually devoted to low-intensity training, instead of high-intensity fitness. The day *before* a match is also usually low-intensity, in part to prevent pre-match injury and to ensure there is no build up of lactic acid in the muscles prior to match day. So, players playing on a Saturday and Monday will have no time to improve their fitness between matches.
It makes no difference whether the player is "professional" or not. Too many matches with too little rest will have a detrimental effect on performance.
*REILLY, T. and THOMAS, V. (1976) A motion analysis of work rate in different positional roles in pro football match-play. Journal of Human Movement Studies, 2, p. 87-97.
** Source: EA SPORTS Player Performance Index
Even if Sheffield didn't have enough of an advantage with having four wins and four draws in the last nine they have home advantage and are only at Huddersfield on the Saturday.
Frankly, making us play on the Monday after a crucial league game on the Saturday and having to travel the day after (probably) gives Wednesday a massive advantage over us. They could even rest some players on the Saturday as they have a 9 point gap to the bottom three.
I didn't think we would beat them, but I'm even more convinced we won't now!
We've played one game since the 1st Feb and some of the new signings like Reza and Astrit have barely played in recent months.
Quite simply, our squad are much fresher than Wednesday's and can't possibly use tiredness as any kind of excuse.