Do you know that time in your teenage years when you grew a few inches taller, and your joints ached? That is called growing pains, and the same thing happens to teams that ignore their need to rotate the lineup.

If you are competing in each competition, with the goal to win in each competition, it is impossible to avoid rotation. How do teams rotate effectively? They involve everyone. How do you involve everyone? You have them start. Not come off the bench; start.

Look at your bench. Are you afraid to play them in a big match? If the answer is yes, for most top teams, that means those players have not started enough prior.

The growing pains come when those players are introduced into the lineup. They come onto the pitch cold; they are off the rhythm; they stand out because they look slow, and they aren’t matching the timing of the rest of the team. That means they’ll put a touch wrong, they’ll mistime a run, they’ll misplace a pass, keep everyone onside, forget who to mark, and forget to make the run in the crucial moment of the game. They will get in the way.

A world-class player will look mediocre if they aren’t in rhythm.

That process of getting rid of the growing pains can take several matches and many weeks. It can be painful if you are starting from scratch. But once you have a squad of seventeen players, you are golden. Then you can look at your bench, and if they are experienced, you can be confident the rhythm won’t be broken. I want those seventeen players to feel what it is like to warm up and start from kick-off. If you feel it, you can start.

When you have that squad of seventeen starters, everyone is fresh. Everyone is ready. It is harder for the team to dip in form when there is an injury. You remain flexible, and you can sleep at night.

Teams that play every two to three days that don’t rotate can’t sleep well at night because if one of their starters falls, they’re done. Season over.