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'Absolutely not' - Paul Warne gives no nonsense response to Derby County question
Paul Warne says squad rotation is one of the most exhausting aspects of his Derby County job and admits some players find it difficult to understand.
Derby face their third game in six days tomorrow night when they tackle Portsmouth at Pride Park as they look to round off the week with a win. Changes are expected for the visit of John Mousinho's side with Warne having made alterations to the team for the defeat at Leeds and in the goalless draw at Burnley.
But he says that it is for the greater good as he wants to keep his squad as fit as they can be ahead of a gruelling Christmas schedule. And asked whether players understood why they cannot play every match in a three-game week, Warne told Rams TV: "Absolutely not.
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"Players never get that. Never and that is the most exhausting part of my job. One player's got it, others are not so keen even if they have a history of injury or anything.
"We're trying to to keep them all fit. If you can keep them all fit going through Christmas, it helps massively. Obviously, it helps us when we pick the team that we pick from a clean sheet of paper when virtually everyone's available.
"But then you go into games thinking right I'm expecting full energy from the team straight away and if we have to make five subs on the hour, then we'll do it. I know the other day we made our subs quite quick and it had an impact.
"They were all attacking subs, I think, apart from Nat (Phillips) who was tightening up a little bit in his calf. Him and Wardy were just fatigued a little bit, but generally they were attacking subs.
"But if you don't have a fit squad, you can't make them changes. You then have to leave players out there and then that's when they break down and all of a sudden it becomes even worse. When the team comes out, I presume some fans or whatever would be thinking 'that's a bit strange, he's playing, he did quite well last week'.
"But there's quite a lot of thought, although it might not look it, in trying to make us as fresh as we can be. Like I said, if we can go into Christmas, keeping a full squad that will help us massively."
