Grimsby Colchester

PAUL HURST felt his side’s goalless draw against Colchester was a missed opportunity.

Attempts were few and far between as both sides found it tough going in blustery conditions at Blundell Park.

“Every game is an opportunity to win,” Hurst said. “The table suggests whether it’s a better chance or not, but every game’s a chance.

“We’re still propping the rest of the teams up, but I still see positives.”

OF all the foreign coaches tearing it up in English football, few have made as much of an immediate impact as Valerien Ismael.

Exciting times have returned to Oakwell, that is for sure and, in his own way, Barnsley boss Ismael seems to be every bit as revolutionary as Pep Guardiola.

The midweek draw with Derby County halted a run of seven successive Championship wins and the Tykes are real play-off contenders, having been in the bottom half of the table when Ismael took over on October 23.

Ismael’s approach is heavy metal, that is for sure. He makes Jurgen Klopp look like a crooner.

Forward Conor Chaplin talks of a “ferocious intensity” – and he isn’t kidding.

Even allowing for rarefied standards of physical fitness, “ferocious intensity” has to take its toll at some point in a game.

Ismael’s style has been referred to as vertical football.

They get the ball up top quickly and press.

High and hard.

So what happens when the high-pressers are knackered? Ismael replaces them.

The farcical five-sub rule has been his best friend.

In that run of seven consecutive wins, Ismael made five substitutions in every single game. Yesterday, he made three half-time switches – and another after 67 minutes – to inspire a 3-2 comeback win at Bournemouth.

Before that, Ismael (below) made a triple change between the 55th and 57th minutes in five of the previous eight fixtures. Clever stuff.

But is this why the five-sub rule was introduced? So that managers could run their starting XI into the ground within an hour and then change half the outfield personnel?

This is where rugby headed to. A starting team and a closing team.

Why doesn’t football just have rolling subs and be done with it? Having resisted calls to extend the five-substitute rule, the Premier League is something of an outlier.

Thank goodness.

Imagine Guardiola being able to make five changes.

Every recent week has been spent marvelling at his bench yet the same people who marvel wanted to allow him to bring five world-class players on to the field during a game.

Yes, physical demands are high.

But shouldn’t that be a major part of skilful management? Pacing your players.

There is an art in tiring the opposition and then capitalising on their fatigue.

Now, Ismael – and any other Football League manager – can just haul off the spent forces and send on fresh cavalry.

It is not solely because of this ploy that he has got Barnsley where they are. Of course, not.

He has a young squad with talented players and there is far too much snobbery about a direct approach. Ismael is clearly innovative in a way that too many homegrown coaches are not.

Perhaps that is why the teams in first and second in the Championship are managed by a German and a Spaniard.

He is clearly meticulous and must also be charismatic and inspirational. Otherwise the players would not fully buy into such a demanding style.

But Ismael is also exploiting the ludicrous new notion that football is no longer about 11 against 11.

It is about 16 against however many your opposite number decides to use.

As an emergency measure, the five-sub rule was pretty lousy anyway. As a permanent rule, it stinks.

Thanks goodness most Premier League clubs saw sense.

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In that run of seven consecutive wins, Ismael made five substitutions each game