Fast forward to Saturday 27th March 2010. Manchester United travel to face relegation-threatened Bolton, on the eve of a Champions League semi-final against Barcelona. Sir Alex Ferguson picks a weakened team and Bolton grind out a 1-0 win.
Come the end of the season, Bolton finish in 17th position, one point ahead of relegated Wolves. If this series of events unfolds, Mick McCarthy will wear the wriest of smiles.
McCarthy’s decision to change all ten outfield players for Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford has opened a massive can of worms. Before the match, it generated a feeling that the result would be a foregone conclusion; a gimme.
Eyebrows will have been raised at all of United’s rivals, not least Arsene Wenger. He watched his Arsenal side held to a 1-1 draw last night by a motivated, full strength Burnley. Afterwards, Wenger commented that he will compete on an equal playing field with United over 37 matches – sarcastic, but fair comment.
We always hear that football is a confidence game. I wonder how those ten dropped players felt…Morale must have been sky high after a fantastic victory against Spurs, and the prospect of an injury-ravaged United defence will have excited the likes of Kevin Doyle.
And what of the fans? A midweek trip to Manchester will have set back the away supporters north of £100 per person. Surely they deserve better?
You can understand the reasons behind McCarthy’s decision, and if the renewed players gain three points at home to Burnley on Saturday, it would seem to have paid off.
But the bigger picture is cloudy. When a club’s final league position has such gigantic consequences, financial and beyond, surely all teams have an obligation to field something close to their strongest line ups in every game.
If the FA take no action against Wolves, it sets a precedent and gives every club carte blanche to decide which games they take seriously, and in which games they simply roll over and die.
………….and the result from Molineux is total vindication for Mick McCarthy.There’s more holes in your article than Manchester United’s defence at the Cottage yesterday.
I said that it would pay off if they beat Burnley – and so it proved. I am drawing attention to the wider ramifications of his decision.
Surely you would agree that it is unfair on other teams at both ends of the table if a manager picks severely weakened teams in gamaes they deem less important?
No I wouldn’t agree, the wider ramifications are not an issue of great worth. This is a competition that spans 38 games played over 8 months, with each club trying to attain as high a position as possible for sure, the financial rewards are so great why would it be any other way. Unless a club fields a weekend team in an attempt to sabotage another clubs chances of success / survival then I don’t have an issue – we live in a time where people think only of themselves, and Premier League clubs are no different, and neither should they be. Get over it. If Wenger is so concerned with the distribution of points which I’m sure he is ,he should have got his players to turn up against Chelsea, and then Arsenal would be top of the league. As Mick said ” I’ve more integrity in my little finger”
McCarthy the Tinkerman may end up Hoisted by his own Petard. By Andrew Walker http://bit.ly/4oNYN4
This comment was originally posted on Twitter