Fifty years ago this month, substitutes were first used in the English league and ideas of how best to change a team mid-match are still developing.
Over the past 20 years there has been a remarkable rise in the use of substitutes in the Premier League, perhaps fuelled by squads having increasing strength in depth, or managers becoming ever more aware of which players tire in the later stages of games.
From 1996-97 to 2007-08 teams could deploy three substitutes picked from five players on the bench. In that first season the average manager sent on one and three-quarters substitutes per match but that figure rose sharply every year to reach two and a quarter by 2000-01.
It was up to two and a half by 2008, from which point seven substitutes could be named, giving managers great flexibility to change their side during a game.
Although that first season, strangely, brought a slight fall in the use of substitutes, the figure quickly grew to the extent that it is around two and three-quarters now.
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The expanding wealth of Premier League clubs since the mid-1990s has allowed managers to build up squads of such depth and quality that they are happy to make three substitutions routinely, it seems.
Furthermore, as analysis of players’ strengths and fitness becomes more intensive, managers have more knowledge to make judgments over which players need to be removed from the pitch and at what time.
This trend can only continue so far, of course, before it hits the ceiling of an average of three substitutes per game. By then, though, perhaps more will be permitted per game.
The information comes from those who run the English National Football Archive at enfa.co.uk.
PLUS ÇA CHANGE
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2009: Barcelona are the defending champions as the draw for the Champions League group stage is held in Monaco on August 27. Group B pits Manchester United against CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg, and elsewhere Chelsea are grouped with Porto while Arsenal and Olympiacos are in the same section.
2015: Barcelona are the defending champions as the draw for the Champions League group stage is held in Monaco on August 27. Group B sees Manchester United up against CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg, and elsewhere Chelsea are grouped with Porto while Arsenal and Olympiacos are in the same section.
WONDER OF WALES
Imagine that four years ago a club were beginning the season in the National League regional divisions, the sixth tier of English football, yet had risen so quickly that they were now somehow (after five promotions in four years) in the top half of the Premier League. If the Fifa world rankings are to be accepted as a genuine measure, then Wales have made exactly that size of jump, having moved from 117th in August 2011 to ninth now. Surinam and the Central African Republic are 165th and 169th respectively in the present standings yet they were ahead of Wales four years ago.
BELOW THE RADAR
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Which Wales player, at his present rate, is on course to become his country’s most-capped player before he turns 31? Gareth Bale, surely? No, it is the low-profile Chris Gunter, 26, of Reading, who has been a Wales regular for eight years and has appeared 59 times, just 33 short of Neville Southall’s record.
SOUNDS FAMILIAR
Having faced Slovenia in June and with games coming up over the next eight days against San Marino and Switzerland, England are playing three successive fixtures against teams with the same initial (any letter) since they met Serbia and Montenegro, South Africa and Slovakia in 2003. In fact, England will have taken on S teams in 12 out of 19 qualifiers up to early October 2017 (they have been grouped with Slovenia, Slovakia and Scotland in their World Cup qualifying section).
LIONS SCARE ATTACKERS
England have conceded 40 goals in their past 50 games; Germany have let in 60 in their past 50.
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FIT FOR PURPOSE
She is only part of a large medical team, but Eva Carneiro – who had a contretemps with José Mourinho recently – could point to Chelsea’s remarkable injury record during her four-year stint as first-team doctor. Chelsea’s players have lost only a combined 497 weeks to injury, by far the fewest among the 13 ever-present Premier League clubs in that period. The average of the other 12 is 937 weeks. Research was conducted by those who run physioroom.com.
FIVE ALIVE
When Aston Villa, Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Walsall played home games in the Capital One Cup last Tuesday, it was the first time the five West Midlands clubs had all played at home on the same day since a round of FA Cup matches in January 1935.
VOWEL PLAY
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Watford’s use this season of three players in the same game with vowel initials – Ikechi Anya, Odion Ighalo and Almen Abdi – against Manchester City on Saturday, is only the second such example since the Premier League was formed in 1992. The other occasion came when Arsenal fielded Andriy Arshavin, Emmanuel Adebayor and Emmanuel Eboué in April 2009.