Despite our large squad, I was rather surprised to learn that so far this season in the League, Stam has pretty much relied on just 13 different players in our starting XI. It always seemed to me that he was tinkering match by match, but actually it's not really true at all. Right click on the image below and you'll see what I mean.
Al Habsi and Gunter are ever-present, McCleary, Williams, Beerens and Liam Moore have all started 30 or more League matches, and McShane, Kermorgant, van den Berg, Obita, Swift, Evans and Blackett have started between 20 and 29 league games.
That's a pretty tight group, with only Liam Kelly on 14 threatening to break into it. Historically, promotion or championships are generally won with tight groups like this. If memory serves, I think Liverpool won a title using only 15 different players, and our 2005/06 side had only 15 players with 11 or more league starts in it, see below. So Stam isn't really the tinkerman at all.