Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Tired excuses don’t cut it... Klopp & Co can rotate instead ANDY
EVEN before arriving at Anfield, Jurgen Klopp was well up to speed with his Liverpool history, so would have known Bill Shankly won the title in 1965-66.
He might not have known Shankly (below) used only 14 players… not in one game but i n the EN TIRE season.
Yes, times have changed and the demands are ver y different but, even without the fivesubstitute rule, Klopp should have enough resources to cope.
As should Pep Guardiola.
Even with fatigue seeming to kick in during the match at the Etihad, Klopp made only two of his permitted three changes and Manchester City’s Guardiola just one.
Less than half of the 20 Premier League managers used three substitutes at the weekend.
Fifteen of the 47 substitutions were made on or after the 80-minute mark.
The reasoning declared by managers of Big Six clubs in favour of five substitutions
– that physical demands are too tough – is, no doubt, honest. But there is no getting away from the fact they have a proliferation of high-class talent, not only to put on their benches, but to leave out of the matchday squad.
For Manchester United at Goodison Park, Paul Pogba and Edinson Cavani came off the bench. Mason Greenwood could not even get on it. They are paying Odion Ighalo £150,000 a week to do nothing. Ditto Jesse Lingard, ditto Phil Jones.
You could go on.
There is plenty of
scope for rotation. The five-substitute r ule gives managers the chance to field two fundamentally different teams in one game. That cannot be right.
Why did Jose Mourinho bring on Heung-min Son, Erik Lamela, Lucas Moura and Pierre-emile Hojbjerg for the second half of a game against Royal Antwerp?
Because he was concerned about the physical well-being of his players? No, because his original line-up was stinking the place out.
The five-substitute rule should be opposed on every level, apart from one.
It is in place in Europe’s other major leagues and football regulations should be across the board.
The Premier League should stick with its threesubstitute rule for now, but there should be uniformity across the major leagues next season.
Klopp should have enough resources to cope... and so does Pep