Makes sense to have five subs instead of three due to Covid times again, admits Ralf Rangnick
Ralf Rangnick has suggested that English top flight football should follow the path of the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A by having only one domestic cup competition and bringing back five substitutions. Clubs are experiencing a surge of Covid-19 cases amidst a busy schedule.
A Premier League shareholders' meeting held last Monday decided to continue the games as planned as long as it was safe to do so even though postponement of a round of fixtures was on the cards. The English top-flight has historically been the only major European league to continue playing games all throughout winter without a break in play.
This year has proved to be especially challenging as many Premier League clubs have experienced a surge in Covid-19 cases among their players and staff. Several managers such as Thomas Tuchel, Jurgen Klopp, and Thomas Frank has called on the league to introduce a reform to the existing format as several games have been postponed in recent weeks.
The introduction of five substitutions is a pivotal change that is being advocated by several managers to drastically reduce the workload of the players and ease the pressure on Covid infected players to make a faster recovery. Manchester United manager Rangnick has supported this notion along with casting doubts on the need for multiple domestic competitions.
"In the future does it still make sense to have two cup competitions? All other big European leagues have only one so this might be an issue worth talking about again and, of course, we are also discussing that it makes sense to have five subs instead of three now we have COVID times again,” Rangnick told in his pre-match press conference.
"The reason the five substitutes were implemented was for COVID, now we have a COVID situation again and we still have 18 players on the team-sheet. For me, it makes sense to be able to substitute not just three, but five players," he added.