Slartibartfast
CIES Loyalist
WHich is disappointing because we should have the collective strength to get through this group comfortably AND play some youngsters. I'm all for serious first teamers in the latter stages though.
I guess we'll see in a couple of days. If he's going to bring anyone up from the B-list (Nketiah, Smith Rowe, Osei-Tutu) for this Europa League game he has to name them at least 24 hours before the match. It all depends on what he means by limited rotation. It may not be what we think when we hear that. He's traditionally gone to extremes with squad rotation. I ran across this in a 2011 Bleacher Report article from when Emery was coaching Valencia:
You can never guess Valencia's lineup before a match. Many managers employ a rotation system, but Emery takes it to extreme levels.
Emery pretty much never uses the same lineup in two consecutive and is constantly rotating even his star players; not even the likes of Mata, Silva and Villa are above his rotation system. Emery has never fielded the same starting XI on two consecutive occasions in the past 75 matches!
It might seem an unconventional coaching method, but the truth is that it has been working great. Everyone is kept happy and fresh with Unai Emery's constant rotations. Besides, the quality never seems to drop and it keeps opponents guessing–they never know who will play and which formation Emery will adopt for any given match.
The success of his very unusual rotation system proves that Emery is a great manager.