New EFL ruling starts as of today

[Never Mind The Paul Cox]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...-new-rules-stop-teams-playing-weakened-sides/


Essentially it is to stop teams who have already confirmed a playoff place, or perhaps those who have nothing to play for, fielding weakened teams against opposition where the result can have an affect elsewhere.

As a Stags fan, I think this probably affects us more than most. We have a ridiculous squad depth of players of good ability. Rotation was Fatty Evans' way of trying to keep certain players happy.

 

[Luke Imp]

There's a difference between rotating and what they're describing in the article.

 

[Never Mind The Paul Cox]

With the extended bench of 7 subs these days, it basically allows 8 changes, which should be more than enough don't get me wrong. We must be one of very few squads capable of changing a whole 11 plus a few subs if we wanted though, not that we'd do that anyway I don't believe.

Our reserves are a betting goldmine when they have been in play on Bet365 this season, as they are good enough to be a playoff side on their own.

 

[shoddycollins]

Our reserves are a betting goldmine when they have been in play on Bet365 this season, as they are good enough to be a playoff side on their own.

 

[Indian Dan]

It does beg the question that with so many quality players, why arent you pissing the league.

 

[AdamStag]

It does beg the question that with so many quality players, why arent you pissing the league.

In fairness he's not wrong.

The problem being is that the standard of our reserves is above that of others, but the standard of our first team isn't enoubh for promotion.

Lots of good players but no exceptional ones.

 

[AdamStag]

Regarding the rule change its rubbish. Managers manager their squad, if guardiola can do it at city there's no reason why anyone a league below can't do the same.

If you rotate your squad and it directly affects another club in the relegation zone then that shouldn't be a problem, it's not your teams concern that there's others down there.

It would be easy to get round anyway, how could they prove players didn't pick up a bug or had a tight hamstring?

 

[shoddycollins]

In fairness he's not wrong.

The problem being is that the standard of our reserves is above that of others, but the standard of our first team isn't enoubh for promotion.

Lots of good players but no exceptional ones.

Two play-off quality squads seems little bit of a pisstake though. If indeed that is the case though then it's an indictment on Fatty Evans for bring together over 24 players who are all quality at this level but being unable to fashion an automatic promotion chasing squad from them.

 

[AdamStag]

Two play-off quality squads seems little bit of a pisstake though. If indeed that is the case though then it's an indictment on Fatty Evans for bring together over 24 players who are all quality at this level but being unable to fashion an automatic promotion chasing squad from them.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head pal.

I wouldn't go as far as saying we've 2 "playoffs/promotion squads" but there wouldn't be much between our starting and reserve XI in midfield defence and goal.

 

[dedwardp]

A rule that means you can change eight players from the previous game means that this changes absolutely nothing.

 

[valefan16]

It does beg the question that with so many quality players, why arent you pissing the league.

We have had a massive squad the past two seasons... hasn’t helped us to be fair!

 

[AdamStag]

It annoys me about the part about teams fighting relegation, having fought it successfully and unsuccessfully from this league, if you're down there after 40 odd games you're down there for a reason (though not always in a way which is fair on the fans or reflects the general stature of the club) so if in 1 game another team features a weakened squad is their prerogative to do so

 

[valefan16]

It annoys me about the part about teams fighting relegation, having fought it successfully and unsuccessfully from this league, if you're down there after 40 odd games you're down there for a reason (though not always in a way which is fair on the fans or reflects the general stature of the club) so if in 1 game another team features a weakened squad is their prerogative to do so

To be honest it doesn’t matter, if your mid table half the time you can’t be arsed anyway. We rolled over for Barnet in 2011 and for Walsall in 2016 with full sides on the last day! After Barnet the assistant had a mega rant, apologised to Lincoln and wanted to have them training into the summer as punishment for lack of effort.

Sometimes a weaker squad may give more to try and put themselves in the window

 

[Richard Cranium]

We might not have one Play off side yet, Some of our lot do come out with some brilliant comments on here. Bring back Jumping John...

 

[Chris FGR]

We're quite similar to Mansfield in that we could field two completely different teams, both of whom would do equally well in this league.

Both would be shit.

 

[Luke Imp]

With the extended bench of 7 subs these days, it basically allows 8 changes, which should be more than enough don't get me wrong. We must be one of very few squads capable of changing a whole 11 plus a few subs if we wanted though, not that we'd do that anyway I don't believe.

Our reserves are a betting goldmine when they have been in play on Bet365 this season, as they are good enough to be a playoff side on their own.

The legacy of Paul Cox lives on.

 

[shoddycollins]

To be honest it doesn’t matter, if your mid table half the time you can’t be arsed anyway. We rolled over for Barnet in 2011 and for Walsall in 2016 with full sides on the last day! After Barnet the assistant had a mega rant, apologised to Lincoln and wanted to have them training into the summer as punishment for lack of effort.

Sometimes a weaker squad may give more to try and put themselves in the window

Last season Exeter faced accusations of rolling over when they were already certain to finish 5th and played us on the final day.

 

[Never Mind The Paul Cox]

In fairness he's not wrong.

The problem being is that the standard of our reserves is above that of others, but the standard of our first team isn't enoubh for promotion.

Lots of good players but no exceptional ones.

The level of quality in the squad means we should be doing better than we are.

In all fairness, when you look at the league table, it tells you that we are the toughest team to beat in the entire league.

It also shows that we have more draws than any team in the entire EFL, the vast majority of which we were in a winning position before cocking it up.

And most Stags fans would tell you, we'd be hard pushed to pick more than 3/4 games where we've put in a total 90 minutes worthy of being called a good performance.

It would be a bit much to say we should be "pissing" the league, but I still believe we've under-achieved. When there's only 6 losses in the league and it's classed as an under achievement, it makes you out to be some kind of fickle Premier League-esque fan though.

 

[Never Mind The Paul Cox]

The legacy of Paul Cox lives on.

Paul Cox had a ridiculous budget to get us out of the league at the time. It had a lot of similarities to what we see now, a ridiculous depth of players, no stand out "star men" and nobody having the slightest clue what our best 11 is/was.

The lads sat in the stands currently not even making the squad would have been nailed on starters in previous seasons under Murray, when the budget was cut after Coxy's big spend.

 

[AdamStag]

The legacy of Paul Cox lives on.

It was marvellously inefficient, but also by winning a conference record of 12 games in a row it was in the end marvellously successful.

 

[hellogregory]

Our reserves are a betting goldmine when they have been in play on Bet365 this season, as they are good enough to be a playoff side on their own.

Yeah Mansfield are hoping to have 2 representatives in next seasons checkatrade trophy. Mansfield Town and Mansfield Town B.

It’s all about helping the national team by giving these Mansfield fringe players a pathway to first team football which should eventually see England win the World Cup.

 

[Davidimp]

Grimsby have been playing a weakened team for the last 18 games I believe....

 

[ValiantRob]

.

Our reserves are a betting goldmine when they have been in play on Bet365 this season, as they are good enough to be a playoff side on their own.

Is this the reserve side that lost 6-0 to Vale reserves the other week?

 

[Greenacres]

We're quite similar to Mansfield in that we could field two completely different teams, both of whom would do equally well in this league.

Both would be shit.

I tend to agree with you there, if you are just looking at the number of players registered to the club, but what has been suggested might involve calling players back from either long term loan or the naughty step!