Parejo Real Madrid Recall Not Ruled Out.....Assessing Need for Competion for Places...Rehman Blogging

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Real Madrid/Parejo - But imagine this is less of a story than might seem]

Tribal Football - Real Madrid may recall Parejo from QPR
Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon won't rule out recalling Dani Parejo from his loan at QPR.
Calderon has raised the possibility of midfielder Ruben de la Red not seeing action again this season after he collapsed during a Copa del Rey tie.
Parejo could return in January as a replacement for De la Red and Calderon said: "Today, I really do not know.
"If it's something that (sports director) Predrag Mijatovic and the coach (Juande Ramos) want, then I will support them." Tribal Football


Dave McIntyre/BBC606 - Is competition for places all it’s cracked up to be?
- Managers always talk about the need for it, and it’s often taken as read that players will perform better if there’s a threat to their place.
- Damien Delaney spent the early part of the season as QPR’s only recognised left-back and struggled for form having done well previously.
- His displays seem to have improved since the signing of another left-back in Gary Borrowdale – perhaps proving the theory that competition for places equals improved performances.
- But speaking to Delaney, it’s clear he puts his early-season form down to a touch of fatigue (which of course in itself is a good reason to have adequate cover).
- Even if Borrowdale’s arrival is a factor in Delaney’s improved form, it would buck the trend at QPR in recent years.
- Everyone talks about the need for competition for places, but think about Rangers’ best performers this decade.
- Keepers Chris Day, Simon Royce and Lee Camp all had brilliant spells when there was no genuine alternative.
- The stand-out performers for Rangers in Division Two – Day, Forbes, Padula, Furlong, Gallen, Bircham and Rowlands, for example – all produced their best form when there was little or no competition for their place.
- Since then, Rangers were hugely reliant on Furlong for a long spell and he delivered despite there being no obvious alternative waiting in the wings.
- Others, like Dan Shittu, Lee Cook and Akos Buzsaky, were Rangers' best player by a long distance when they were the only player of their type in the squad.
- In fact, Cook is a great example of why competition for places isn’t always best.
- If it was, he and Kevin McLeod would have been setting the bar higher and higher when the two wingers were in direct competition.
- Instead, neither of them found any kind of momentum and Cook established himself as a top Championship player only after McLeod left.
- And this season, the theory was that Camp and Radek Cerny would compete for a place and give Rangers two good options.
- Instead, Cerny’s performances have dramatically improved since Camp moved on and he became Rangers’ unchallenged first-choice keeper.
- Are we seeing the best of Rowlands now he's competing with the so-far disappointing Dani Parejo?
- Has Mikele Leigertwood, who played so well early last season, peformed better since the signings of Mahon and Tomassi?
- And have any of those three really made their mark in the battle for a midfield place, which has seen them continually drop in and out of the side this season?
- A player being an automatic choice is supposed to be a no-no, but there is clear evidence that they actually perform better knowing they’re likely to play no matter what.
- No-one can doubt that having a strong squad is essential because of inevitable injuries, suspensions and losses of form.
- But in terms of individual performances, is it really the case that players will be better when there's competition for their place?
- Is the Holy Grail really this “competition for places” everyone talks about, where each player knows they must keep performing to stay in the team?
- Or is it having a settled side of first-choice players who know a couple of bad performances won’t cost them their place?
-What do you think? http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A44720949


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