How to squad rotate?

[Kreeshak]

I currently have a good idea of what my best eleven are for my tactic. I could be playing those every game but then there would be a riot in the squad that will plumber my morale down.

I am looking to rotate 3 players, every game out, and bring lesser players in so they all get some playtime.

One way to do it would be pure luck.

Randomly pick 3 out of the best eleven and then sort by appearances, find the least playing players and bring them in.

Other way would be to pick the 3 with the worst form. and then find the least playing by appearances players and bring them in.

Another way would be to bring in, the "best" outside of best eleven, but then again that wouldn't be much of a rotation as I would end up with a lot of players with 0 appearances.

Looking for ideas, help, advise on how to rotate the squad! Anything that I haven't considered.

 

[Ghents]

I usually have an A-team, a B-team, and a cup team. Then I have certain players I want to use as subs to get time that are part of B+C.I'll use the A-Team for probably 75% of my season, but use the B-team is easier home/away games every so often and then the cup team obviously in cups.When I pick up an injury, I usually update each squad to account for that injury.

 

[simsays]

I usually have an A-team, a B-team, and a cup team. Then I have certain players I want to use as subs to get time that are part of B+C.I'll use the A-Team for probably 75% of my season, but use the B-team is easier home/away games every so often and then the cup team obviously in cups.When I pick up an injury, I usually update each squad to account for that injury.

Same here, though my B and cup team are usually rougly the same. In the latter stages I will use my A-team players.
I usually have 2 players for each position, with sometimes a hot prospect in the squad as 2nd/3rd option. I'll let them start easy games occasionally, too.

 

[CaptiveBridge]

Other things you can look at are positional synergies. For instance I run a 4-4-2. My RB is Polish and doesn't speak the country's language fluently yet. Since tactically he directly works with my right midfielder and right sided centre back, if I'm going to rotate players who would also interact with those players, I may have to rotate the Polish guy out if the 'new' player also doesn't speak English. It detracts from the effectiveness of the team if too many members of a tactical unit don't speak the same language.

Similarly, if the player your rotating in has a glaring fault, you may also consider rotating someone else in to cover for said fault. I have a holder-runner CM duo, if I'm rotating in a runner that isn't good defensively I consider putting in a more disciplined holding player to compensate or adjusting the role to be more disciplined.

Another consideration is rotating to counter term specific opposition. When I play against a 4-2-3-1 narrow, I tend to swap my Polish RB with one that offers more on the overlap or my runner CM with another holding CM.

Having a cup team and a B team is nice, but you do run the risk of disjointed performances, sorta like when Man City in real life run their 'B' team. It's a bit safer to run something where you have a few players swapped out for cups like a cup striker or a cup goalkeeper or cup DM than it is to run a full cup team. Not knocking those who do, but I like the consistency of small swaps as opposed to big swaps. 19 year old keeper making cup debut behind a back four playing with each other for the first time all season, behind a midfield who also don't play with each other often doesn't sound appealing. Then again, if your team is willing to die for each other, it won't be too off.

Simple things like fixtures, player condition, jadedness, form, happiness are also good things to base rotation around. Also, whether you're training the player for a new position, if so you may have to play them more often to get them used to the new position especially if they are not versatile.