Subs
I thought there was a thread for this already but couldn't find it. Anyway, this whole 5 subs thing, I was in favour of the idea before the season started, but every time we've done mass changes so far we've completely killed the game. It immediately feels like a friendly, our shape gets lost and nobody seems to know who they're supposed to be picking up on the press or when defending. Against Barnsley, we did normal substitutions. Am I reading too much into a small sample size? 🤔
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seems to be entirely designed to enhance time waisting and allow whoever is in the lead on 70 minutes shut the game down.
I definitely think the understanding of how to best use so many subs will evolve. My fear is that with a thin squad, we are at the mercy of teams with stronger squads who can replace quality with quality more often than we can.
Has to help having real quality on the bench and being able to rotate an entire forward line or defence mid game, or even allow you to kick lumps out of the opposition or time waste whilst rotating the offender as some teams seem to do, you could end up with 32 people getting a yellow and no reds.
I agree. I don't like 5 subs.
The fixed number of windows in which to make subs is silly too.
Still too soon to judge imo, but it doesn't seem to have made any difference in the Champions League and that's had the rule ever since it first came in as a temporary measure
That said, I do think we've used it for the sake of it. It's there to give managers the option, but I think you'll see a lot won't change from how they approached subs when only allowed three. Pep only used one v Newcastle and that was injury-enforced!
I don't like it because one of the best things in football is when players get tired and play becomes less controlled and more open
Much less likely to happen if you can replace half the outfield players with fresh legs
If anything, they should go back to only allowing one
And then only for bona fide injuries.
When we have everyone fit we've as strong a squad as anyone in this league surely?
You could be bringing on Hanlan, Gape, Thompson, Wheeler and Kaikai as the 5 subs! That's pretty tasty.
Plenty of squads stronger than ours, but we should be able to compete
Certainly the strongest squads we've ever had, as Gaz said the other day
Man for man almost certainly but our whole is usually better than the sum of its parts.
IMO when a team is well on top, against Burton for example, there’s absolutely no need to make multiple changes. However bringing on 3 or 4 Quick attacking players, when chasing a game, against a tiring defence could be a big advantage to a high pressing team
Luton v Sheffield United was a good example of a promising ending to a game being ruined by excess subs.