No best XI: Darren Moore will make changes to his Doncaster Rovers line-up - and you better get used to it

The Doncaster Rovers boss has priorities other than a consistent line-up of names on his agenda as he puts together his starting XI for each game.

Via various methods of correspondence, I have been contacted numerous times over the last few weeks with plenty of references to Moore being ‘a tinkerman’ or, more pointedly, ‘not knowing his best side.’

I would posit that for Moore there is no such thing as an all-encompassing ‘best side.’

There is only the best side for the next game.

On only three occasions this season has the Rovers boss named the same starting XI in consecutive league matches. For reference for fans of settled sides, those three occasions brought a win and two draws.

Never has he named the same side in three straight league matches. It would be surprising if he did in the remainder of this season.

When it comes to League One games, Moore averages 1.7 changes per match. Since the closing of the transfer window, when four new players arrived, that has upped to 2.6 changes per game.

Some of those changes were obviously enforced but most were not.

You will hear Moore use the phrase ‘horses for courses’ on plenty of occasions. And that pretty much sums up his approach to team selection.

Other factors come into play such as fatigue and minutes played, but his main priority is naming a team best suited to beating the opposition in the environment in which the game will be played.

It is precisely why James Coppinger has not started any of the last six away matches. Moore believes other players are more suited to face the challenges from the start on the road, with harrying and chasing more important away from home.

Cameron John and Reece James’ exchanging of the left back position is driven by Moore’s belief that some games require greater defensive strength, provided by the Wolverhampton Wanderers loanee.

It is why there will be occasions when a player has been excellent in one game but benched in the next - such as Kieran Sadlier last week.

While continuity in selection will be seen by many as the route to cohesion within the team, Moore believes that understanding is reached on the training ground.

He is positively delighted to have a blank midweek at his disposal - and three more to follow - so he can get his players back into sessions at Cantley Park focused purely on shape, structure and philosophy of his style of play.

It is why the new faces have been given more of a soft introduction to life at Rovers, until Moore can sufficiently drill them in his ways.

Watch Rovers closely and you will see passes played blindly, on instinct rather than sight. This is part of the work from the training ground - players knowing that team mates are going to appear in certain spaces to collect passes, and players knowing to run into the spaces because the passes will be coming.

The understanding is strong despite the changes made because of the training ground work Moore desires so much.

As I have written on numerous occasions before, the Rovers boss is a man with a plan. A strategy for each match.

Now he has a greater number of options at his disposal, he has greater flexibility in delivering such a plan.

Change is a fact of life at Rovers. You better get used to it.