My suggestion would be to guarantee every player at least 50% of every game and give yourself some wriggle room however if you have promised them equal playing time, which is very honourable then I would suggest you just look to swap like for like in terms of positions but be a little strategic in terms of who replaces who (assuming you have mixed abilities). My best advice is keep a log of who plays when as it sounds like you may have some challenging parents and perhaps remind them that it’s development football!

Thank you for your advice, yeah we have mixed abilities, of course i dont want them to know who i think is better than who. what i am thinking is starting with a mixture of abilities & switch out to at one point have the higher abilities on at one stage? do you think thatll be a good idea?

Had a similar situation last season with 14 in our squad for 7v7 matches. Spoke to parents & players early on in season to explain that because of the big squad size, while we try to make sure everyone gets a decent amount of game time, there will be some matches where not everyone plays as much as they want. Everyone who was there on a match day got to play but we didn't time it to exact equal minutes on each game. In any league you'll have easier and harder opposition - when we were playing the weaker teams we gave the weaker players more share of the game time and explained it to the stronger players as letting their teammates have a chance to develop and get longer stretches of play - the kids were all fine with it even though one or two of them moaned occasionally. Repeated to them 'I know you can do it, I know I can always rely on you, but I need to see what X can do."

We were slightly lucky in that there were usually a couple who couldn't make each match (not the same ones every time obv) but when we had full attendance we asked on the parent group for a couple of players to volunteer for rest weeks so we didn't have quite as many subs to manage per game.

Hi Callum,

We had the same issues last season with sometimes 6 subsitutes for a 7vs7 game, very difficult to rotate and keep everyone happy. We tried to split the squad into two teams this season but the new coach walked away last minute :( So we have a large squad again this season and we have introduced rest weeks for the girls. Its not ideal but we feel at least when the girls are there on a match day they are getting lots of sustained gametime rather than 10 minutes here and there on rotation. Also through the winter they are not stood around in the cold. It seems to be working ok so far and we try to plan the rest weeks around holidays and things the girls have on to try and help. 

Hi Mark,

We’re just discussing this at the moment with our team and potentially limiting the squad for each match to 10. Interested in how you have managed it and what feedback you had from parents. 

Assuming you are a parent too, do you rest your son/ daughter too or give them priority?

Thanks,

Andy

Hi Andrew, so far it's working well. We asked the parents for holiday dates, weekends away etc.. So that we could try and plan rest weeks around those. It's not ideal but much easier to manage on match day. Had no complaints from parents yet. 

Hi Andrew, so far it's working well. We asked the parents for holiday dates, weekends away etc.. So that we could try and plan rest weeks around those. It's not ideal but much easier to manage on match day. Had no complaints from parents yet.

I think this gets easier when you stop focussing on how to win. At this age it needs to be about fun and development. Keep it simple and fairly random/arbitrary as to who plays when and in what position. Just do your best to be fair to each child and worry less about parents and winning.

hi mark, this is my first season coaching and we also have a similar problem and for this age group i agree its fair to rotate players around as much as possible. 

weve been on the tail end of about 5 10-0 defeats recently and i could see the motivation starting to slip. i am thinking of introducing having 4/5 core players and rotating the squad around them. would anyone think this not right? i obviously understand at this age group its not fair for most players however if theyre losing week on week due to our 'better' players not playing and lacking enjoyment do you think this is fair?

It's such a difficult one, the scorelines shouldn't matter but they still hurt. Could you introduce rest weeks, then you could try and manage the match day squad with a blend of your stronger and weaker players. My daughter was one of the weaker players last season but has come on leaps and bounds with more gametime. I don't think it helps much when only playing 5-10 minutes here and there in games. I try to give everyone at least a full half but can only do that by reducing the squad on a match day. Just my opinion though.