Should we rest McGinn?

[davidw]

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Player of the season for me, but the poor lad looked absolutely dead on his feet out there today. Would it be better resting him for the quarters in hopes that we get through and he has a bit more in the tank for the semis? Or is it too big a risk?

A friend knows his mum. Says he feels knackered and is also struggling with his back problem. So some kind of rest would probably help.

[The_Exile]

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Seems like every other thread on here refers to the players as 'knackered' or 'shattered'. Yes, they have played more games this season than most (all?) other teams in Scotland but this is no excuse for tiredness. These are young guys who get well paid to play professional football. They should be elite athelites more than capable of meeting the damands currently being placed on them. I fully appreciate that two games per week over the course of a month is a mental challenge as well as a physical challenge but given the level of opposition I fail to how this could 'shatter' or 'knacker' our young squad.

Disagree with this, if your body needs to rest it needs to rest irrespective of how much money you earn and how young or fit you are, there's not many players that have that natural fitness to play 50 games over the course of 9 months, and especially in centre midfield.

[Itsnoteasy]

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Player of the season for me, but the poor lad looked absolutely dead on his feet out there today. Would it be better resting him for the quarters in hopes that we get through and he has a bit more in the tank for the semis? Or is it too big a risk?

He should have been dropped months ago.
Can't understand why he took Henderson off. The lad was gutted to be subbed. Just shows how poor the rest of the team have been. McGinn gets POTY & he has only really performed in the 1st half of the season

[Monts]

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Seems like every other thread on here refers to the players as 'knackered' or 'shattered'. Yes, they have played more games this season than most (all?) other teams in Scotland but this is no excuse for tiredness. These are young guys who get well paid to play professional football. They should be elite athelites more than capable of meeting the damands currently being placed on them. I fully appreciate that two games per week over the course of a month is a mental challenge as well as a physical challenge but given the level of opposition I fail to how this could 'shatter' or 'knacker' our young squad.

Some of these players are basically running the equivalent of a 10k run every 3-4 days. But it's not as simple as that, as in a normal 10k there is no sprinting, no jostling, no sharp changes of direction. If you factor that in, as well as training in between, not many people could keep that up indefinitely. We've been doing it for 2 months now.

[hfcnic]

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Player of the season for me, but the poor lad looked absolutely dead on his feet out there today. Would it be better resting him for the quarters in hopes that we get through and he has a bit more in the tank for the semis? Or is it too big a risk?

In my opinion he has not been at his best for a while due to playing so much, so yes rest him and get him back for the final.

[Arch Stanton]

Now we're in the playoffs the likes of McGinn and Henderson will have room to move and play a bit - while I saw signs of frustration I didn't see the 'knackered' that people are talking about.

Playing against teams that play 10/11 behind the ball AND play a high line doesn't leave any space to operate - worse than Princes Street on Christmas Eve.

No need for resting other than judicious squad rotation in my view.

[Arch Stanton]

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Some of these players are basically running the equivalent of a 10k run every 3-4 days. But it's not as simple as that, as in a normal 10k there is no sprinting, no jostling, no sharp changes of direction. If you factor that in, as well as training in between, not many people could keep that up indefinitely. We've been doing it for 2 months now.

Surely the top European players do that and a lot more. I would say that having done it for 2 months then we will be conditioned to it.

[Ronniekirk]

If one posters description of Starks Park is right ( looks like a Tattie field and is cutting up ) may be too risky a surface for Dylan
But agree if Dylan gets more game time that will help McGinn ,but i do think we need to try and give him a break as he is the sort of player who gives everything and puts in a great shift which is difficult to achieve playing three games a week at end of a hard season with all the cup games as well
A lot has been expected of him at times in his first season with us If we can keep him he will go from strength to strength next season
Did he not miss some pre season with that javelin injury from stephen Thompson while at St Mirren



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[Monts]

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Surely the top European players do that and a lot more. I would say that having done it for 2 months then we will be conditioned to it.

Since the start of February to the end of the season we could play a possible (hopefully) 28 games.
Comparing that to Barcelona (24 games), or Bayern (25 games) shows that it is a lot. Especially when we don't have the depth of squad, or sport science teams that these clubs have.

[Arch Stanton]

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Since the start of February to the end of the season we could play a possible (hopefully) 28 games.
Comparing that to Barcelona (24 games), or Bayern (25 games) shows that it is a lot. Especially when we don't have the depth of squad, or sport science teams that these clubs have.

Makes some difference I suppose - but not masses I don't think. No reason to be pessimistic anyway.

These clubs have been playing 2 games a week for most of the season after all.

[Smartie]

McGinn is the only player that imo looks tired.

He's not had a break all season though, has played almost every game, played during the International break and I don't know how his preparation for the season was following the "spear" incident.

Fyvie, McGeouch and Hanlon all look fresh for having missed a spell through injury. I don't know how Stevenson does it, he powers up and down that line all day and never looks in the least jaded. Henderson has occasionally looked tired late in games and has benefitted from having a rest at times. I suspect Gray will come back stronger for missing the last couple of matches and it was a good decision to leave out McGregor on Saturday.

I think Stubbs has done quite well with his rotation of late to only have one player looking tired after all these matches.

[Alex Trager]

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Some of these players are basically running the equivalent of a 10k run every 3-4 days. But it's not as simple as that, as in a normal 10k there is no sprinting, no jostling, no sharp changes of direction. If you factor that in, as well as training in between, not many people could keep that up indefinitely. We've been doing it for 2 months now.

To be fair though, they do it in the English championship almost week in week out

[Monts]

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To be fair though, they do it in the English championship almost week in week out

Middleborough will have played 21 games from the start of Feb to the end of the season, assuming they are in the playoffs.

[LaMotta]

I don't think Stubbs will rest him on Wednesday. He is our player of the season, and whilst he was poor first half on Sun, he was instrumental in the second half and showed lots of energy which led to the red card and the booking quickly after.

He certainly didn't look tired against Rangers last week, however we shall see on Wednesday what Stubbs does

[Mikey09]

Personally think he's mentally tired. A lot of big games been played by a young lad can, whatever any old school manager or supporter tells you, take its toll.

[Big_Franck]

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McGinn is the only player that imo looks tired.

He's not had a break all season though, has played almost every game, played during the International break and I don't know how his preparation for the season was following the "spear" incident.

Fyvie, McGeouch and Hanlon all look fresh for having missed a spell through injury. I don't know how Stevenson does it, he powers up and down that line all day and never looks in the least jaded. Henderson has occasionally looked tired late in games and has benefitted from having a rest at times. I suspect Gray will come back stronger for missing the last couple of matches and it was a good decision to leave out McGregor on Saturday.

I think Stubbs has done quite well with his rotation of late to only have one player looking tired after all these matches.

Totally agree with that. One of the things Stubbs has done well this season is rotate and rest the squad when appropriate, with the exception of McGinn. With Gray and Cummings having had a decent rest recently and with others not long back from injuries most of our squad should be relatively fresh.

[J-C]

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Some of these players are basically running the equivalent of a 10k run every 3-4 days. But it's not as simple as that, as in a normal 10k there is no sprinting, no jostling, no sharp changes of direction. If you factor that in, as well as training in between, not many people could keep that up indefinitely. We've been doing it for 2 months now.

Stubbs said in an interview a couple of months ago that when they are playing twice a week the training will change dramatically, he said that in between games it's all about rest and working more on tactics, set pieces etc.

[Eyrie]

I don't think the Starks Park pitch is a good idea for McGeouch, so I'd play McGinn on Wednesday and replace him with McGeouch on Saturday.

[ancient hibee]

Take 5 off Raith on Wednesday and we can rest a few on Saturday.

[Bad Martini]

If he's physically or mentally unable to play, by all means rest the laddie.

However, if we dont make it through these games, he'll have a big rest anyway.

I'd go with the thinking that we need him and the strongest team possible for this first match and lets kill this tie so the return to Easter Road is somewhat academic. I DONT expect Raith to sit there and let us do it - not at all. But, we are a better team than Raith on our day. So, lets no piss about; one more serious shift and a great big effort from them all. Get a few goals and THEN start talking about resting our best player(s).

Till then, the job carries on unless someone is ruled out medically....we're just no good enough to do anything other than play our best team for this match and hope to keep the tie in our hands as we would like.

[Forthview]

The league cup final was the first time I really watched his movement and it was pretty much non existent, I haven't seen him contribute anything since that game. He looks knackered, he needs a rest for a week or so.

[Hi Heid Yin]

We have a first class recovery and conditioning team on our books. They will be doing everything to ensure that all our players, including McGinn, are in peak condition. Massages, resting, diet will figure highly in each players programme.
I feel we have momentum and we can't risk losing it by dropping key players for whole games. McGinn is a key player, so, for me, he has to be involved in every game, though not necessarily for 90 minutes.

[Hi Heid Yin]

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If he's physically or mentally unable to play, by all means rest the laddie.

However, if we dont make it through these games, he'll have a big rest anyway.

I'd go with the thinking that we need him and the strongest team possible for this first match and lets kill this tie so the return to Easter Road is somewhat academic. I DONT expect Raith to sit there and let us do it - not at all. But, we are a better team than Raith on our day. So, lets no piss about; one more serious shift and a great big effort from them all. Get a few goals and THEN start talking about resting our best player(s).

Till then, the job carries on unless someone is ruled out medically....we're just no good enough to do anything other than play our best team for this match and hope to keep the tie in our hands as we would like.

I concur with the bit in bold. We do not have the strength in depth we like to think we have. Our poor recent run highlighted this when key players were missing. Now they have returned one by one and our results have improved no end.

[Unseen work]

Imo he shouldn't start.

We should play our best team against raith and at this moment in time Mcginn isnt out performing anyone.

He has had a couple of games where he has been rested and it's not made a difference.

He's going through a bad spell right now, he's had a fantastic season but with that he has had alot of pressure put on him. I think it's mentally drained him

For me the midfield should be Fyvie bartley and Henderson as the central 3 in a 352.

Hopefully that will give him the appetite to get going again as it currently looks like he is just going through the motions.

[J-C]

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Imo he shouldn't start.

We should play our best team against raith and at this moment in time Mcginn isnt out performing anyone.

He has had a couple of games where he has been rested and it's not made a difference.

He's going through a bad spell right now, he's had a fantastic season but with that he has had alot of pressure put on him. I think it's mentally drained him

For me the midfield should be Fyvie bartley and Henderson as the central 3 in a 352.

Hopefully that will give him the appetite to get going again as it currently looks like he is just going through the motions.

I agree but remember we're talking about Stubbs here, he's not known for changing his mind too much, he played Cummings every game through his bad spell when it was clear he needed dropped, I personally think McGinn is the 1st name on the team sheet no matter what form he's in.