Boss Paul Lambert has defended his rotation policy, believing that it keeps more of his players up to speed and ready to play and also that it should prevent burnout towards the end what will be a long League One campaign.
Lambert dismissed the suggestion that the policy doesn’t allow on-field relationships and chemistry to develop.
"No, because I trust them,” he said. "The great thing for any footballer is a manager that will trust you. If the manager doesn’t trust you then you think your days are numbered.
"I trust every one of them to perform, trust every one of them to play and that’s the biggest compliment I can give them - that I trust them to perform.
"It’s unfair on them if I have some guy playing 15 games and another guy one and then the guy with one game to play the same as the guy with 15 has done. It’s unfair.
"So I won’t put that pressure on the player and say he must play the exact same way as the guy that’s played 15 games, that’s so unfair.
"That’s why we try and keep everybody’s game time [up to a level] where we can get most of them up at the same number of games and we’ll be a better team for it.
"That’s why we made a conscious decision to get lads up to speed whether it’s through cup games [or otherwise].
"But it’s because I trust them, that’s the great thing, I trust them to do that. It’s not as if I sit here and think we’re weakened.
"I think, ‘OK, this is the team we’ll play for this game and this is the one we’ll play for that one’ and I trust them to perform.”
Lambert hopes the policy will prevent players suffering from the effects of a long season and the club might feel the benefit towards the end of the campaign: "Hopefully, yes. That’s the objective.”