Rangnick Wants Premier League To Re-Introduce Five Substitutions

A number of Premier League games have been postponed in the past week due to coronavirus infections among clubs.

The knock-on effect will be fixture pile ups and player welfare has become a concern once again over the amount of games to be played in a short period of time.

Premier League clubs agreed to allow up to five substitutions after the 2019/2020 season resumed in following the coronavirus pandemic.

A reversal to the original three substitutions rule was voted for by majority of the clubs for the 2020/2021 and it has also been in place this term as many opined that the five substitutions favoured the big clubs with greater squad depth.

"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’s encounter with Newcastle.

"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."