Selection for matches and playing time
We would expect that all players get selected for roughly the same number of matches over the course of the season. For this purpose, matches include both friendlies and league games.
However, there are valid reasons why some players may get selected more or less often. These include availability, attendance at training, attitude and parental contribution to the club. For example, if one player is available every week and one is not then it would be reasonable to select the player who is available every week more often. One way of managing this is to look to select players for the same proportion of games which they are available for.
If coaches are giving up their time to run a team then it is reasonable that their children may play more regularly but please also consider that they may need to take a turn to rest along with other players.
It should be recognised that a player taking their turn not to play or being a substitute occasionally is a crucial part of learning to be part of a team.
It may be that some players are more ‘important’ to the team and you choose to select them more often. For example, at the older age groups, if your team only has one goalkeeper, or if 1 or 2 stronger players are necessary to ensure your team is competitive, you may want to pick them every week. This should only be done for the benefit of the wider group and not just to ensure that you win!
If it is the case that some players need to play more for the benefit of the wider group, it is really important that you give fair opportunities to others as well and that you look for opportunities to rest the players who don’t usually miss out (e.g. friendlies).
On match days, all players selected for the match day squad must play at least half of the available playing time. This applies to all age groups. Normally we would expect players to play more than this. We would expect the coach to rotate selection so that the same players are not always subs/subbed and all players have opportunities to start.
The aim should be to give all children roughly equal game time on a match day but this needs to be balanced with ensuring the team is competitive. Game time can be evened out over the course of the season and not just from match to match, i.e. a player may play less one week and more the next.
