I wrote this during the 2006 World Cup, just prior to the playoff matches involving
Italy vs Germany and France vs Spain, both games
are a perfect example of good rest vs bad rest.
Lets
start with the bad rest...
"Coach Zaragonas
from Spain rested all 11 of his starters against
Saudi Arabia just prior to this match, most coaches will rest only key players, no more than 5 at a time, the reason is, just
in case the resting of players proves to be self destructive, you have outs, you only sacrificed 5 and can sub 3 of them and
overcome, also, resting some players is not a good idea, by resting them they might lose their sharpness and timing on the
field, and that would be a disaster, there is no need to rest young players who are playing well like Torres and Villa, its
an unecessary risk, rest the older guys who benefit
from the rest, but don't rest your whole team, expect Spain to get laid
to rest permanently by France in this game."
And France won this game easily as the underdog, the bad rest move
by Spain cost them big time, they played their worst game of the tournament because of it.
Example of good rest...
"You just have to take a few games off if you're gonna win one of
these things, and make sure your key players get a rest. Klinsman should've got guys
like Assamoah into the game, let them run around
out there and give his top guns a rest, Klose has played over 400 minutes of this tourney, none of the Italian
strikers have played even 300 minutes
Then
look what Italy has on the bench, 100 goals in Del Pierro and Inzaghi, and
they don't even need them, they have played 150 minutes between them, in fact, every single
player on Italy's roster has seen action, with
the exception of the backup goalies, that is the sign of a very good coach and a solid team
If you want
to compare starting lineups in terms of minutes played
so far(and its a very important stat)...you will see that overall,
Italy as a team has played over 1000 minutes less than Germany...i'll get out some stats
Forwards - Italy +308 minute advantage
Klose - 408
Podolski - 443
Toni - 286
Gilardino -
257
Midfield - Italy +258 minute advantage
Ballack - 390
Schweinsteiger - 400
Schneider - 402
Frings - 449
Borowski - 176(gets occassional start, might start this game)
Totti -
285
Pirlo - 427
Camoranesi - 175 (plays
when they go with 5 in midfield, and 1 forward)
Gattuso - 312
Zambrotta - 360
Defense - Italy +674 minute advantage
Metzelder - 390
Lahm -
480
Friedrich - 453
Mertesacker - 480
Nesta - 196
Cannavaro - 450
Grosso - 360
Materazzi - 123
Team
Total - Italy +1240 minute advantage
Obviously the lower those
numbers are next to each player, the better, and Italy has a huge advantage, they
are coming into this game in much better shape physically,
and way less worn down, consider any thought you had of Germany being physically superior in this one a
complete myth, it's quite the opposite
Germany will
need all the help they can get just to keep it close, that is such
a huge advantage for Italy(how did they do it...smoke and mirrors baby), they average over 100 minutes
less per player, just incredible
Imagine
i'm in a 10km marathon race against the world's best 10km runner, but i only have to run 7.5km...well
i'm gonna kick his ass...no matter how good you are, you
just can't give away that kind of advantage"
And Italy won this game and
the World Cup mostly due to coach Lippi getting his players some
very beneficial rest time.
