Holloway in trouble for too many team changes

mmj_uk

mmj_uk

mmj_uk

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/nov/11/premier-league-investigate-blackpool-ian-holloway

The Premier League has confirmed it is investigating Ian Holloway's decision to make 10 changes to his Blackpool team for last night's 3-2 defeat at Aston Villa.
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In my opinion this is ridiculous, a manager has a squad of players and can pick and choose as he sees fit as long as they are a registered squad player.

Holloway has already been punished in that they lost out on a *possible* point or three, though that's not to say they couldn't have also lost 4-0 with their strongest team on the pitch due to fatigue.
 
Nope, you're only allowed to play certain players in consecutive games, the PL decides on your team selection and it's not really down to the manager. Apparently.
 
He's threatened to quit over it if he gets punished for it, part of me hopes he doesn't, because he is a very charismatic man and a good manager, but another part of me hope he does just so that the FA will suffer the repercussions and backlash for having such a retarded rule in place.

Part of participating in competitions is to manage your team's overall fitness by juggling players around and risking losses. That shouldn't be interfered with at all!
 
It is the most ridiculous thing ever. Who is even judging what your strongest 11 is?

Although when Wolves got fined for it, it was hilarious. Get it up you Mick!
 
Jambo said:
It is the most ridiculous thing ever. Who is even judging what your strongest 11 is?

Although when Wolves got fined for it, it was hilarious. Get it up you Mick!
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They didn't actually get fined it was a suspended fine.

As with Wolves though this is pathetic from the PL, you name a squad of 25 and you should be able to pick and choose who you want to play from those 25 and change as many as you want when you want.

Hell, they were lucky not to get a draw out of the game, wonder if anything would have been said if they did get that result.
 
In fairness, it's pretty hard to define the difference between changing an entire team due to fitness/resting, and doing it to deliberately throw a game for the benefit of the opposition.

Although, in both this, and Wolves' situation last year, that clearly isn't the case. Blackpool clearly tried to win, and what would the punishment have been if they had done? "How dare you successfully change your squad so drastically, here's a fine"?

Match-fixing should only be punished by hard proof, not conjecture.
 
I thought a manager males the best of his team over a season, which is what he is doing.

Didn't villa have something like 8 players missing or something also?
 
This is just going to keep raising it's ugly head until some definitive line is drawn somewhere which answers both sides of the argument.

The bottom line is that despite a manager saying 'we seriously tried to win that match' he is still writing it off by not selecting his strongest available side in order to preserve certain players for a more important upcoming match.

If every manager did this football wouldn't be much fun imo as it's essentially the manager deciding which games he is going to lose and which games he's going to win. I think the FA/PL were hoping this would disappear after last year, but it doesn't look like it will and it needs to be resolves ASAP for the good of the game.

The FA have no choice but to fine Holloway, which, as he seems to be a man of his word, means he'll leave, and I for one quite like listening to what he has to say.
 
It's not a case of saving your best players, as we've seen with Hull and Birmingham in recent seasons, if newly promoted teams go hell for leather every week with the same XI, by christmas they're dead, then they get about 5 points in the last 18 games. Holloway is being sensible and trying to preserve a small squad.
 
I see that from the viewpoint of the club, but I also see it from the viewpoint of the league and to them it looks like managers are writing off games before a ball is kicked.

The league is going to win on this one I think but I can't wait to see what they do implement as I personally can't see a way of fixing it.
 
This is getting ridiculous.
Blackpool made the changes because they wanted/needed to especially with the short burst of games over the next few weeks. So fa are saying blackpools first team would have beat Villa?
 
Well I think the FA are looking at it as the first team did have a chance of beating Villa but that the manager didn't agree, so he fielded a weakened side so as to save his best players for a game he feels he can win or is more important in the grand scheme of things.
 
How bizarre, a smaller team is NOT being allowed to do what it takes to survive? :eek::confused:

This is a stupid rule, but I guess it's once again tied into the fact that it's the Premier League. People pay to watch a first team and they want one. When they've given that much money to the clubs they seem to have made their own rules.

On the other hand, the league is the bread and butter of football. Should teams be forced to acknowledge that, the current status quo says squad rotation/resting players is allowed in cup games/Europe only.

Still out of all that, is the question asked yesterday. Why do we have a round of league games midweek? Only two games were televised!
 
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Blackpool should get fined as what's the difference with what Wolves did last year? Wolves made 9 changes last year but fielded a team with internationals either at full or u21 level and we didn't exactly let United walk all over us. The only difference this time round is that we haven't got the likes of Wenger and the media blowing up about it as it's only Villa. I guess the big 5 don't care unless it affects the title race.
 
Greenlizard0 said:
How bizarre, a smaller team is NOT being allowed to do what it takes to survive? :eek::confused:
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The way the FA/League are looking at it is that no one team is bigger than the league itself, i.e. why should the league suffer as a result of one manager putting his club first when in doing so comes at the expense of the league itself.

The league will continue in fine form should Blackpool be relegated but I doubt it'd continue for very long if more managers started picking and chosing which games they fancied a win from.

The league has got to be 100% competitive in every single game or else the league is flawed as the results of matches are being decided before a ball is even kicked.

The FA have to do something to stop if for the good of the game so I expect Holloway to be heavily fined and the fines will continue until they can think of a way to keep everyone happy but yet still keep the league 100% competitive. Like I say, I can't think of a way to resolve it, so I think this is just going to go on and on.
 
[Holloway's] swashbuckling squad of bargain-basement fancy dans has done far more to protect what passes for the integrity of the Premier League than any number of petrol-rich clubs playing three defensive midfielders in the hope of eking out home draws.
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Love it
 
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