Five-sub rule ‘could count against Barca’

Barcelona could suffer from the new rule that allows teams to make five substitutions in a match instead of three, their coach Quique Setien has said. Setien believes Barca, who are two points clear at the top of La Liga, will also find opponents are now fresher toward the end of games.

“I think it will actually harm us,” Setien said in a video conference with the Las Palmas Football Federation.

“We know we settle a lot of matches in the final minutes. If you give the opponent the option of bringing on fresh players in that time, they won’t have that weakness of tiredness.