Southgate wants Premier League to consider five substitute rule
Nov 17, 2020
Leeds [UK], November 17 : England football manager Gareth Southgate has urged the Premier League organisers to consider returning to five substitutions per game.
Southgate has given his opinion has a number of players have been suffering from injuries during the international break.
Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) and Jordon Henderson (Liverpool) have left England's squad for the Nations League due to fitness problems.
"We were able to make five changes against Belgium, we made four in the end and clubs don't have that option. What will it take for that to change? There were a couple of less serious injuries against Belgium but what do we do? Wait until we get a load of really nasty ones," Goal.com quoted Southgate as saying.
"I have to be fair to the club managers. They are their players firstly, and they have the right to play them as they see fit. What we have got to do as a collective is to try to help the load," he added.
Earlier, Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola had vouched for allowing five substitutions per each game in the Premier League so that injuries can be avoided.
Liverpool is currently facing an ominous task as their all main defenders are looking at serious injuries. The Reds are facing a prospect of locking horns against Leicester City without their first-choice backline.
"We could not have prepared physically any better than we did last week. We have given players extra days' recovery. We have tapered the training appropriately and we have still ended up with a couple of injuries. So that is a worry in the long term because with no winter break ... something has to give," said Southgate.
England's third and final fixture of the Nations League will be against Iceland.
The match holds no value as England is guaranteed to finish third in the points table and Iceland will end up at the fourth spot.
