POLL: Is the rotation policy working for Chelsea?

Chelsea fans, I am asking you for answers today after being beaten by QPR at Stamford Bridge.

Rafa Benitez decided to rest Ashley Cole, Ramires, Juan Mata and Eden Hazard for the game and replace them with Ryan Bertrand, Oscar, Victor Moses and Marko Marin as apart from Bertrand, he decided to rotate ALL THREE players playing in behind Fernando Torres.

At the time, on paper, it looked like a good idea and I even tweeted “Fair play” ahead of the game last night as it seemed as though it was the right idea with last night and Southampton coming up in the FA Cup at the weekend.

Now that’s no disrespect to QPR or Southampton at all. With the players we have, playing at home and the good run of form we had been on compared to QPR, we still looked to have had enough creativity in the side to cause them problems and to create chances to score. It looked like the right idea from Rafa as long as we won the game!

The problem was that we didn’t create enough clear cut chances apart from a Torres shot saved at point blank range by Julio Cesar in goal and a cross from Marin just missed six yards out by Moses.

As a result, we were hit by a sucker punch in the second half, made substitutions too late and lost the game.

As I said, Benitez has said after the game:

“I don’t regret the changes because we can’t carry on with the same players in every game. If you’re playing a team at the bottom of the table at home, you have to trust your players and I trust them.”

Benitez made a big mistake here last night. He cast aside QPR because of their league position and expected an easy win and made the changes to the side he did.

We all expect Chelsea to win every game but we all know that will never happen so you have to put a side out that YOU KNOW can get the job done and not one that YOU HOPE will do it.

Marko Marin hasn’t played much at all (so I don’t blame him), Oscar has been in and out of the side since Benitez took over and doesn’t look the same player as he was a couple of months ago and Victor Moses once again has to get used to playing with different players as part of an attacking three supporting the striker. Last night in the first half, he looked like he was taking the fight to QPR by himself!.

I am all for rotating players and resting players if they need rest but to make the amount of changes he did in resting FOUR of our best players was too much and unbalanced the team.

Why couldn’t he give just two of them a rest and give the other two a rest against Southampton? At the end of the day it’s the Premier League and we needed the points!

Couldn’t Ashley Cole and Eden Hazard could have been rested last night and Ramires and Juan Mata at the weekend?

If anything based on life outside of football, we keep hearing Managers talk of players being “tired” after playing every three days! For God sake, it’s a ridiculous statement to make, isn’t it?!

What do you people think on the issue of rotation? Was Rafa right to rotate as many players as he did? When do you think it’s right to do it ?

Carefree & KTBFFH!