Thomas
Tuchel has joined the growing calls for five substitutes to be allowed in
the Premier League again.
The league permitted five changes to be made at the height of the Covid-19
pandemic in 2020, but reverted back to three last term.
However, as cases rise among players over the busy festive period, Tuchel
feels the players need their workload to be eased.
The Chelsea head coach was unhappy their match at Wolves had to go ahead
last weekend despite an outbreak at the club, although he hopes two of his
affected players, Romelu Lukaku and Callum Hudson-Odoi, will be available
for match at Aston Villa on Boxing Day, which is live on Sky Sports.
He said: "For us it's the same situation as for anyone else. We have
concerns, because we are not only football players and coaches, we are also
fathers and have family members so we are also concerned and have doubts and
fears.
"Still we are privileged to do our jobs and do what we love the most so it's
kind of in between. I'm very impressed with how the team takes it.
"You know very well that the situation was very different when we arrived in
Wolverhampton and had seven positive tests in three days.
"We had the feeling that we had an outbreak and wanted some time to deal
with it mentally and to settle the team down. That was not the case and we
lived with it. We tried to be as supportive as possible.
"I just can say on this occasion I would love to push for five substitutions
because five substitutions were made to protect the players when coronavirus
popped up and made life difficult.
"I think the situation is very serious and very challenging so if we decided
to keep on playing at least we should have five changes to control the
load."
Rangnick favours return of five subs
Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick feels it would make sense to
reinstate five subs - a rule which has remained in the rest of Europe's top
leagues since it was introduced in summer 2020 at the beginning of the
pandemic.
"The five subs were implemented when Covid started, and I think it was the
right decision to do that to save energy for players, especially if they
have just recovered from Covid," said Rangnick, ahead of the Monday Night
Football encounter with Newcastle, live on Sky Sports Premier League.
"The same is true right now - we are in a similar situation to the one we
had one-and-a-half years ago, therefore I don't see why it shouldn't be as
it was one-and-a-half years ago. As far as I know, in Europe England is the
only country where they only allow three subs.
"You're still allowed eight field players on the team sheet, you should be
able to replace five, you will always have five players on the bench who
cannot be substituted on and cannot play."
He added: "I think it would be of great help to have five subs. I would be
much more in favour of having five subs. I think we should seriously think
about that again. Most of the players would be in favour of that."
'This is the only country to not accept
five substitutions'
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola have
also spoken out about not being able to use five substitutions.
"This is the only country to not accept five substitutions, just three.
Why?" Guardiola said.
"We want to protect the players, so bring five substitutions. It's much
better for the amount of games, but the Premier League and clubs decide no".
"If the players and managers come together and strike or something... just
words won't solve anything. UEFA, FIFA, the Premier League, the
broadcasters, the business is more important than the welfare. A simple
example is the five substitutions. Tell me one argument to take care to be
more welfare for the players than this one.
"If we talk about the welfare, if it's just for the players, the association
of players they say okay we don't play anymore until you solve this. Maybe
we need a strike for people to take attention."
top