Squad Rotations: Are We Thinking Clearly?

By: Isaiah | October 20th, 2008

Recently there was a spate of comments asking for Bojan’s inclusion in the rotation system that is going on at Barça. Is this a well-founded argument, or is there a level of bias going on? I’ve asked for player inclusion before, so I’m certainly not exempt, and I too would like to see More Bojan.

Let’s take it one step at a time, though. These are early days in the league and if you’re Guardiola, you’re still getting to know your squad, especially the new players. It’s easy to say “play this guy, he’s good,” but in a squad like Barça’s, there are lots of those players. In the case of Bojan, he’s an 18-year old who last year played in 31 league games and 9 Champions League games (that’s 40 total games). Of those, he started 17 of them and subbed on the remainder (23). Perhaps Guardiola is holding off on using Bojan because he doesn’t want to wear the lad out; it was Bojan, after all, who peremptorily turned down a spot on the Spanish Euro2008 team because of exhaustion. Maybe they’ve worked out an arrangement where Bojan will play more and more throughout the coming months, especially after January.

Next, let’s go to the actual statistics.

Barcelona has had 11 competitive games in La Liga and the CL (I’m not counting Copa Catalunya, in case you were wondering). Bojan has subbed on for 6 of the 7 league games and 1 of the CL games. In fact, the game against Athletic was the first league game Bojan did not take any part in. I don’t have his total minutes available (I’d love to get my hands on an accurate number because it would help focus this section). During those 6 substitute appearances, Soccernet lists him as having 4 shots on goal and 1 assist. Not exactly monster numbers, but, as many people have pointed out, the stats don’t really point to the energy and movement that Bojan creates while he’s out there. Still, Bojan has taken part in 7 of the 11 games so far (64% — look, no decimals!).

Let’s compare that to some of the other field players out there:

Xavi: 10/11 (91%) [10 starts, 0 subs on]
Abidal: 9/11 (82%) [9 starts, 0 subs on]
Messi: 8/11 (73%) [6 starts, 2 subs on]
Yaya: 7/11 (64%) [5 starts, 2 subs on]
Busquets: 7/11 (64% [5 starts, 2 subs on]
Caceres: 2/11 (18%) [1 start, 1 sub on]

This is a fairly random smattering of players from all over the field (my sample is actually really heavy on midfielders) — I purposefully threw Caceres in order to point out that other players are getting the same treatment as Bojan. Perhaps they are completely different situations, but can anyone really doubt that Caceres is a quality defender? Bojan is a quality striker, but neither he nor Caceres are the finished products yet. It appears to me that Guardiola is using practice time and late game situations to mature them before throwing them to the wolves (it’s a commonly held idea that strikers mature faster than defenders — and also expire faster).

Now, Guardiola obviously uses Pedro and Busquets (especially the latter since the former is injured at the moment, I think) much more frequently, but they are also older than Bojan by a couple of years. Pedro is 21, Busquets is 20. So their temperaments and their abilities are more likely to be solidified than Bojan’s. No doubt practice with Henry, Eto’o, and Messi is helping Bojan to mature without some of the constant pressure he was facing last year. Yes, last year he scored 10 goals in his 31 league appearances and 1 goal in his 9 CL appearances.

If Kevin is right about the team concept that Guardiola is putting in place, it would be foolish to attempt to force his hand in playing Bojan before both of them are ready for that situation. That would disrupt everything that the team has going for it. However, I do not want to see Bojan left on the bench simply for the sake of saving him if he would do a better job on the field than the people who are supplanting him in the rotation. If the score is 5-1 us over Atleti in the 70th minute, why send in Bojan? Why not send in Pedro at that point? When the score is 1-0 us over Athletic, why send in a-just-off-the-DL Hleb instead of a fully fit Bojan?

I can’t really argue with the results, but it’s those situations that make me wonder about Guardiola’s desire to have the kid in the squad. He’s better than Pedro, so he should be higher on the totem pole. For my money, he’s better than Hleb as a left wing forward and certainly has more chemistry at the moment. (And I’m not knocking Hleb, but who can give 100% immediately after an injury? Also, Hleb cannot be construed as a defensive sub or really a tactical one since Bojan would have played in that exact situation)

We’ll see more of Bojan, I’m sure, and while I too hope it’s soon, I think Guardiola has it right in saving him up and not using him up. Save him at the right moments and put him on the field at the right moments. So far, Guardiola has been earning very high marks for his insight into how to tactically change a game and I hope he uses Bojan to do just that throughout this year.

Now, have your say in the comments.