Is resting players a good thing at the end of a season?

[Bootle Buck]

Will resting players like Torres and Gerrard be a good thing or will it make them a little rusty. The Chelsea players were involved in two must win games either side of our CL games and fielded largely the same team. The will carry a momentum and confidence coming into the game were Torres who was on fire will have only played one game in the last few weeks. I thought last season in the CL Final we looked really rusty as most of the players had been rested for a few weeks. I thought in the 2000-01 seasonn our players seemed to finish the season on adrenalin and confidence of playing and winning games.

 

What are your thoughts?

Edited April 28, 2008 by Bootle Buck

[Flasher]

They've been playing all season. Missing one game now will not make them rusty.

 

What the erst will do is enable them to approach the game feeling fresh, confident, and more importantly with a re charged level of fitness, not just physically, but also mentally. The latter will be very important on Wednesday night.

 

Chelsea on the other hand have got all sorts of things going on in their heads right now, some good, some bad. Either way, they will tire mentally as the game wears on.

[Woodsyla]

Will resting players like Torres and Gerrard be a good thing or will it make them a little rusty. The Chelsea players were involved in two must win games either side of our CL games and fielded largely the same team. The will carry a momentum and confidence coming into the game were Torres who was on fire will have only played one game in the last few weeks. I thought last season in the CL Final we looked really rusty as most of the players had been rested for a few weeks. I thought in the 2000-01 seasonn our players seemed to finish the season on adrenalin and confidence of playing and winning games.

 

What are your thoughts?

 

 

Torres looked knackered on Tuesday, resting him was fantastic idea.

[Woodsyla]

They've been playing all season. Missing one game now will not make them rusty.

 

What the erst will do is enable them to approach the game feeling fresh, confident, and more importantly with a re charged level of fitness, not just physically, but also mentally. The latter will be very important on Wednesday night.

 

Chelsea on the other hand have got all sorts of things going on in their heads right now, some good, some bad. Either way, they will tire mentally as the game wears on.

 

Carvalho's pass to Rooney illustrates that, players get more careless when they are mentally tired.

[Gilps]

Torres played against Blackburn on the 13th, against Chelsea on the 22nd and will play against Chelsea again on the 30th. Do I think he'll get rusty playing 3 games in 2 1/2 weeks - slightly more often than once a week on average? No.

[Rory Fitzgerald]

There was nothing at stake against Birmingham - whereas they needed to win the game. It was always a possibility that he would get some special treatment.

[ali]

Obsessive Rafa puts us through the mill, Anfield's dressing rooms are too small and Premier League defenders are bullies - but I love life at Liverpool insists Torres

Last updated at 13:48pm on 28th April 2008 Daily Mail

 

Fernando Torres has branded Rafa Benitez an obsessive taskmaster, labelled Anfield's dressing-rooms antiquated and slammed Premier League defenders for being over-physical.

 

And the 24-year-old Spain striker, who will lead Liverpool's attack against Chelsea in tomorrow night's Champions League semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge, has vowed revenge on Blues centre-backs John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho for the treatment they have given him this season.

 

Torres has been a revelation since his £21m club record move from Atletico Madrid last summer, scoring 30 goals in 42 games.

 

Hard training routine: Torres works hard because Benitez makes him do so

 

And although he thanked Benitez for making him a better player, he insisted: "Rafa Benitez is obsessed with details. He calculates everything, including runs and flights of the ball, and studies it on his computer.

 

"And if he tells you to stand five feet from the penalty spot, it's not in your best interests to be six feet from it. He'll show you that the extra distance makes the difference between a goal and a missed chance – and it has worked for me.

 

"The proof for me is that I had never scored a club hat-trick in my life before joining Liverpool. But I've since got three, against Reading, Middlesbrough and West Ham.

 

"Rafa explained everything to me before I even signed – how we would play, and what our aims were. He even gave me a work schedule in advance.

 

"He has great powers of seduction and he makes crazy demands on us. At the end of training, when we are all tired, he can still make us repeat routines 20 or 30 times.

 

"I found the Anfield dressing-room very old and very small, and the players are right up against one another inside it. Rafa has tried to get it extended several times.

 

"But the senior players told him that the dressing-room had been like that for a lifetime and that it was like a listed building.

 

"The first home game I played was against Chelsea. I went back inside after the pre-match warm-up, and the crowd was singing so loudly the walls seemed to shake.

 

"I remember thinking that there is no way we can lose here and that day I scored against Chelsea.

 

"Nobody is sure of his first-team place at Liverpool. Rafa is merciless, and anyone who wants to play in matches has to earn the right in training.

 

"It is different to Spain, where only an earthquake can change the pecking order at a club. You soon learn the Liverpool way of doing things.

 

"If you train like an amateur you end up dropped to the bench for the next game.

 

"Training sessions here are tough and committed and at the same rhythm as proper matches. The spirit is the same at the weekend. English football is physical and reasonably honest – in contrast to La Liga.

 

"The Spanish game is more vicious, and you get studs-first challenges and elbowings off the ball. All defenders in England are tough, the good ones and the less gifted likewise. It must be written in their contracts!

 

"But now I've taken that on board I've got to go out and earn my money. I am paid to deal with this and I am not scared of a scrap so long as it is fair.

 

"I have wanted to play against guys like John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho for a long time, and they do me an honour by giving me a tough time.

 

"Now I'm going to try to respond to them by getting a couple of goals against Chelsea. Everybody dreams about playing in the Champions League and in the space of a few months I have gone from watching it on TV to having a part in it.

 

"I have already got plenty of memories. My goal at the San Siro when we beat Inter Milan 1-0, the 4-0 win over Marseille, and my goal in the 4-2 win over Arsenal.

 

"And now it is the turn of Chelsea. I don't ask myself questions – I just tell myself time and again that I have done the right thing to join Liverpool."

 

 

30 mins with Fred on LFCtv at 6.30pm on wednesday before the match

[Kahnee]

Good interview that

[Rory Fitzgerald]

His PR man should get in touch with Andriy Voronin

[Guest Scot]

'Rafa explained everything to me before I even signed – how we would play, and what our aims were. He even gave me a work schedule in advance

 

 

Love that...

[stressederic]

I don't think we're resting them in the conventional sense, more that we're protecting them from an injury in a pointless game.

[Guz]

"Now I'm going to try to respond to them by getting a couple of goals against Chelsea. Everybody dreams about playing in the Champions League and in the space of a few months I have gone from watching it on TV to having a part in it.

 

"I have already got plenty of memories. My goal at the San Siro when we beat Inter Milan 1-0, the 4-0 win over Marseille, and my goal in the 4-2 win over Arsenal.

 

"And now it is the turn of Chelsea. I don't ask myself questions – I just tell myself time and again that I have done the right thing to join Liverpool

 

I just do not know what I'd do if he rips Chelsea a new one and guides us to Moscow on wednesday. Honestly, just thinking about it gives me f***ing goosebumps.

 

Could've had 2 in the first leg and put the tie to bed to be honest so hopefully he'll be at them even more on wednesday and get his reward