Norwich vs Spurs (away) Wed 22nd January.

[morty]

Thing is you pick your strongest 11, and you give them every chance. Changing for change sake is just daft, and there is no mythical "right" time to make subs, unless you look back in retrospect. Our strongest 11 are nearly good enough, but the fact is, unless an individual player is having a shocker, there isn't much on the bench that will make a massive impact.

 

[Number 9]

Thing is you pick your strongest 11, and you give them every chance. Changing for change sake is just daft, and there is no mythical "right" time to make subs, unless you look back in retrospect. Our strongest 11 are nearly good enough, but the fact is, unless an individual player is having a shocker, there isn't much on the bench that will make a massive impact.

65 mins in I'd seen enough to know that Cantwell, Pukki and Byram needed changing.
Onel, Drmic and Jamal could have come on and improved the team at that point.
I'd have swapped McLean and Rupp too, neither looked comfortable out of their normal position.
We could have won it.

I believe we have players who are good enough, but our management isn't.

 

[morty]

So, 5 subs then?

 

[Number 9]

So, 5 subs then?

Morty!

Rupp was playing right wing in front of Max, all I've read about him suggest that he is a cdm. It was his first start, would have been nice to see him in his strongest position.
McLean was playing cdm, I personally believe that he is better going forward so I'd have swapped those two positions.

Spurs attacked on their left so replacing Byram with Jamal wouldn't have hurt defensively yet we would have had some end product on our left which was woeful with Byram.
Cantwell too was having an off day, Onel would have freshened it up.

Just my feelings watching the second half.

 

[Fenway Frank]

I don’t get this massive hang up some people have about the timing of subs. With the exception of Lambert I can’t remember a manager that made early subs. If we were losing a match with ten minutes left Hughton would have brought on another defender ! Rupp did look like he was out of position though and I would hope he plays centrally on Saturday

 

[OldRobert]

Fergie seemed to think it was important FF, and he knew what he was doing. Making subs late on doesn't give those players a chance to change the game does it ffs, unless you are in front 5-0 with 5 mins to go, so of course it matters.

 

[hogesar]

To be fair we didn't need to change the game. Once we scored at 1-1 we looked the most likely team score the third goal.

 

[GJP]

We're just coming up a bit short. And maybe that goes for the manager as well as some of the players.

 

[Fenway Frank]

Fergie seemed to think it was important FF, and he knew what he was doing. Making subs late on doesn't give those players a chance to change the game does it ffs, unless you are in front 5-0 with 5 mins to go, so of course it matters.

Fergie should be concentrating on his own team

 

[Number 9]

If players are looking knackered or struggling then best to change before you lose the game.
Todd could easily got sent off for that studs up challenge, I don't know what he was trying to do then but you'll see red for that more often or not. I'm not saying that he shouldn't have started but if he's having a mare then change it up.
Subs can change the game in your favour, but less likely to win the game if you're making them with just a couple of minutes to go.

 

[Number 9]

It now transpires that Todd was struggling with hamstring, so it's good to know I wasn't being hyper critical and all the wore strange thst he wasn't subbed earlier. Onel couldn't have been worse than he was at that time.

 

[OldRobert]

So why the hell wasn't he subbed? That's just bloody ridiculous.