People liked the idea when Lampard preached it and although I can see why, I feel the meritocracy is a bit of a far-fetched idea (if that's the right word). If you're gonna start dropping players after a bad game or two, then there's no chance the team will build any sort of consistency, understanding etc. At some point, you gotta trust the players to be self critical and improve in next game. Imagine if Lampard, Drogba, Terry etc were dropped in the past after a bad game! Not saying any player in particular here, just making a general point.