At the end of last season, Real Madrid were crowned the champions of Europe for the third time in four years. But we know this already, don’t we? However, there was something different about this triumph than their previous two victories.
The one notion that always echoes around the football fraternity is the importance of squad rotation. Frequently changing the starting XI in order to keep all the players fresh in a gruelling season that consists of over 50 games would be the basic definition of squad rotation.
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The important question here is: how much rotation is good rotation? Too much and the team can become imbalanced, too little and fatigue crawls in.
For the top clubs, playing in the elite leagues means that the line between good and bad rotation is as misty as a winter morning. This is one of the reasons why most managers don’t prefer tinkering with their playing XI because they would rather risk fatigue than squad discrepancy.
Necessity is the mother of invention
Most managers have the problem of not having quality players in the team. For Zinedine Zidane, however, the case is entirely the opposite. His problem is that he has too many quality players in his squad, so much so that someone like James Rodriguez couldn’t even make it to the bench in the Champions League final.
Now, what does a manager do when he has such a huge pool of immensely talented individuals? Zidane rotates. 20 players of the Real Madrid squad played over 1000 minutes last season and even then the Frenchman couldn’t keep everyone happy – Alvaro Morata and James Rodriguez being prime examples.
Rotating the squad was a necessity for Zidane, not because he had to keep everyone fresh, but because he had to keep all of his players happy. How well the bench players performed when they got a chance was actually a bonus for the Frenchman, something perhaps even he had not expected.
No manager likes to risk the balance of the system but Zidane was forced to in order to maintain the balance of the dressing room.
But it yielded results. The Frenchman realised that he needed to keep everyone content while also lifting trophies at the end of the season. And he did. Twice, in fact. Zidane led Madrid to their first major double in over almost 60 years and was lauded for his man-management and precise rotation policy.
And now, other managers are taking inspiration from the World Cup winning former France international, most notably, Antonio Conte.
Chelsea building an unbeatable squad
Notice that the term used above is squad and not ‘team’. The former Juventus boss brought the Premier League title back to Chelsea after two years, but now is when the real challenge begins – and he seems to be meeting it head on.
While the Italian had a strong team at his disposal last term, he was lucky with the fact that Chelsea had one less competition to worry about since they were not in the Champions League. Hence, the focus was on the Premiership alone.
This greatly benefitted the London outfit as their best players could play almost every game and Conte didn’t have to worry about fatigue. And the stats back this claim.
When comparing the Chelsea players’ appearances with Real Madrid’s, the contrast is staggering. Seven Chelsea players started in at least 30 league games last season. For Real Madrid, not even a single player reached the tally of 30 games.
The player that featured in the most league games for the Whites was the wisely-used supersub, Lucas Vazquez, who featured in 33 matches, only 12 of which were starts.
This is a testament to Madrid’s bench strength. Zidane could afford to play with his supposed ‘B team’ without any repercussions whatsoever. Indeed, the ‘B team’ performed better than the first team on many occasions as well.
Also read: Antonio Conte created a kingdom in Italy but he can build an empire in England
It is for this reason that Madrid had no problems winning the Champions League last term. Going into the final against Juventus, Los Blancos were fully fit and absolutely hammered the Old Lady in Cardiff.
And Conte was definitely watching his former team get battered. And he observed. Conte’s tactical nous in unparalleled, but when it comes to man-management, Zidane is the boss – and if Conte’s recent signings are anything to go by, he is following in the footsteps of the Frenchman.
Despite already having one of the most consistent left-backs in England, Marcos Alonso, and a beast of a midfielder in N’Golo Kante, Conte has almost completed the signing of Monaco’s most tactically important player of last season, Tiemoue Bakayoko, and arguably the second best left-back in the world, Alex Sandro.
For some, they might be luxury signings, but if Zidane has taught us anything last season, it is that there is no such thing as a luxury signing. As Chelsea have the Champions League to play in the upcoming season, every player will be of great importance – and in order to compete on both fronts, a strong squad is the requirement of the hour.
The concept of indispensable players was challenged by Zidane’s Madrid last season. Even Cristiano Ronaldo was dropped in order to stay fit for the gruelling run-in. While it’s true that some players featured more than the others, there wasn’t a set starting XI as Zidane showed that each player could be put to good use.
And now Conte seems to be the first follower of Zidane’s philosophy.
