Resting Star Players Against Weaker Teams

Just wondering how often you rest your star player, I am currently playing as Arsenal and see my next opponant is West Brom at home, should be an easy game. I never know if I should show arrogance by rested Fabregas, Eduardo and David Villa who are my three star performers. I ended up resting them and we won easily 4-0 with Ramsey scoring a screamer in place of Fabregas and RVP coming back from injury netted a hat trick.

This got me wondering do you rest your star players against weaker teams or do you see it as an opportunity for them to get assists and goals and up their seasonal average rating?

I regularly rest star players especially if at home before a big midweek cup or CL match although not usually defenders. I always consider it to be a big opportunity for the fringe players to get a game and put some pressure on the top stars.

i rest them in cups against lower league sides but my defenders and GK are usually able to play most of the time and stay fit

I regularly rest star players especially if at home before a big midweek cup or CL match although not usually defenders. I always consider it to be a big opportunity for the fringe players to get a game and put some pressure on the top stars.

This is exactly what I do, gives me plenty of games for my youngsters to have a go. There will normally be around 5 first teamers/rotation in the squad then the rest is my promosing youngsters. In a full season a youngster can get around 10 starts doings this, which in turn helps him develop faster.

i rest them in cups against lower league sides but my defenders and GK are usually able to play most of the time and stay fit

Same here as well.

I have also been in good positions in the league over the last 4 seasons and have usually wrapped up the league with around 4 or 5 games to go so I use his opportunity to play fringe players or players who i have earmarked as replacements for the first team stars.

I use the League Cup likle Arsenal do and play the young fringe players as well.

Well I started to rest my main players and the fringe players performed very well and then the computer cuts out and I lose the imformation. D'oh, this will teach me to use autosave a bit more.

Never, rested a team before a CL final once and got badly beaten (in the final I mean). Not sure changing a team too much from match to match is that good an idea so I don't simply to save players for later. Plus sometimes easier matches aren't so easy, you don't win 6 leagues in a row without taking each match seriously, plus the 'lesser' teams have actually been responsible for a greater proportion of dropped points during that time then you'd think, would have been a lot more if I took chances.

I'll always play a team of people with below 7.00 average rating in the cups/less important games

I might win my first piece of silverware solely with my reserves here.

They've played every game of the league cup (average age 20) and we are now in the final against Man United. If we pull it off my reserves have won a trophy all by themselves. I also play a mostly reserve team for the group stages of the Champions' League and have no problems.

If you're at a big club with a stable squad it's quite easy and beneficial to have two 11s and play them in an equal number of matches - one 11 for harder matches and the other 11 for 'easier' ones.

I try and keep my best XI together for as long as possible at the start of the season. Later on, once they start getting tired I will rotate the squad but only one or two players at a time.

The only exception is the Carling Cup, I often put out weak sides in that.

If you're at a big club with a stable squad it's quite easy and beneficial to have two 11s and play them in an equal number of matches - one 11 for harder matches and the other 11 for 'easier' ones.

This is what i do. I have 2 starting 11s and they are about as good as each other and either side can easily win the leauge.

I always put my strongest team out unless it's in cup games and against much weaker opposition.

I normally take a few star player's out and play a few young player's, that way the young player's are able to gain experience and the star player's are able to rest and can be used against much tougher opposition.

When i was liverpool i use to put torres and gerrard on the bench when playing against lower teams. I would always tend to bring them on after the 70th min and torres always seems to score. He sort of became my super sub

It depends on who I'm playing although I never rest my first 11 in a Premier League game. Only in the cups.

I usually rest them based on their condition and importance of the competition for the board.

Since my board doesn't consider the league cup a priority, i use a reserve/youngsters team. It's a good way to give them match time and to watch them play.