Three is plenty…..

 

Probably the worst kept secret from the EFL, with the exception of them giving Derby County as long as they want to sort out their finances because they are a ‘Big ‘ club compared to Bury, is that the five substitution rule has been voted in by its members and will start for this coming season. 

The five substitution is nothing new as the EFL introduced it from November 2020 for the remainder of that season, due to Covid.  The strange thing was that the Football Association (FA) didn’t bring it in for their competition and we could have probably done with it when we played Barrow on a Thursday night and went into extra time. The FA did allow an additional substitution for games going into extra time but that had been in place for a little while. The first time we saw a benefit to the new rule was a double substitution away to Rochdale which allowed Ethan Chislett as our fourth substitute to replace Alex Woodyard on the 87th minute and he scored the winner 5 minutes late. Rochdale then introduce two additional substitutes themselves once we scored which meant they also had a fourth substitute on the pitch. 

I know a few people have been a little unsure the new rule and how it will work. The wording from the EFL is ‘Each Club is only permitted a maximum of three opportunities to make substitutions during the fixture, plus an opportunity at half-time, and a Club may make more than the one substitution at each of these opportunities’

With half time being another opportunity to make substitutions, this means our new manager Jonnie Jackson, has four substitute windows and it does change the dynamics of the game massively in my opinion. When watching games on iFollow for the 2020/21 season games could change massively with the fourth and fifth substitutes being introduced with more energy on the pitch and also some managers would use a substitute window to bring on three substitutes with 15 minutes to go and change formation easier with more players coming on at one time. I watched some games become like cup games with attack vs attack and this will be a skill set managers have to adapt to and improve as we know from personal experience last season the amount of late goals we conceded to lose 2 points on many occasions. One thing to be aware of is if you use all your substitute windows and still have a substitute to use, you are done for and this happened to us a game previously which left everyone flummoxed, similar to the rule that a free kick for offside can be taken in the players own half depending on where his offside rule started from  

Last season we had the five substitutions in all European fixtures, FA Cup and the latter stages of the League Cup along with international fixtures. We have seen World Cup’s and European Championships with the remaining squad on the bench and the manager able to pick from any of the 11 substitutes, so its no surprise the EFL have followed suit with what the major competitions did last season. 

Of course we know that VAR was allowed for the showpiece playoff finals this season when not being allowed during the normal season I would imagine down to cost. How long is it before VAR is or at least a VAR lite version introduced with money being provided for this cost from the solidarity money. 

And one final though on this new rule for next season, we also have the concussion substitute allowed, which I think is really important but we all know it can also be abused and that could mean that we see 12 changes on a football pitch in one game next season!

Its been a couple of weeks since Jonnie Jackson was introduced as our new manager and since then it has been reasonably quiet from him, however he has managed to get deals over the line for Alex Pearce on a free transfer from Millwall who has loads of experience in the Championship and lots of good feedback on him from social media when the signing was announced. 

We have also secured the services of our captain, Alex Woodyard for another two years which is a brilliant bit of work from the club. Most clubs that are relegated from Championship and below face a loss of revenue and in turn their playing budget, so to see one of our most influential players stay and sing a new deal, it certainly shows the intent from the club and I am looking forward to seeing what other player come through the Plough Lane door.

Don’t know about you, but I have spent a month away from anything Wimbledon related and feeling refreshed and ready to go for the new season. The 9yrspodcast wont be back until the start of the season, but we are playing to do our 9yrsTV live shows for our home preseason games which are against Ipswich, Reading and Oxford. 

If playing pre-season friendlies against teams who would be visiting us in a league game doesn’t hammer home our relegation, the fixtures being released in around 10 days certainly will!!