Man United take on Tottenham Hotspur this Friday as the resumption of the 2019-20 season of the English Premier League continues.
The Old Trafford outfit are currently fifth on the league table and if they manage to pick up a win vs Jose Mourinho’s men then, for the time being, they have a chance to move above Chelsea and occupy the fourth spot.
Speaking in the build-up of the match, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was asked about the new rule of using five substitutes during the match. The Norwegian did admit that while he can do perfectly fine with only three subs but he could use the extra two in order to rest and rotate some of his key players.
The manager told the press: “It depends on the games of course. Three subs, that is the right amount for a game, but five of them will happen because we have to look after the players.
“The Premier League is intense physically and they are going straight into another season after. It’s a good option to protect the players and not pick up any unnecessary injuries. We have to use those periods to make subs well.
“It’s a great game, a big game against one of the best teams in the league of course, Champions League finalists less than a year ago, so we know that we’re up for a hard game.
“We’ve prepared as well as we’ve can. We’ve trained well, the boys have trained well over the lockdown. We’ve had a couple of in-house 11v11s and we had had one 11v11 against West Brom which hopefully will stand us in good stead.
“They are young, they look fit and ready, so we will see tomorrow night.”
The extra two substitutes might seem like a luxury but as Mikel Arteta found out on Wednesday, this new rule is really going to help the managers keep their players fit for the rest of the season.
Coming back from such a prolonged shutdown, players are bound to pick up injuries which in turn will put pressure on the managers to not only rotate their players on a regular basis but also to make extra changes as and when necessary.
The Man United boss will obviously not think any differently and if his side can wrap up the match early then the Norwegian will make a flurry of changes in order to give youngsters like Mason Greenwood and Angel Gomes time on the pitch.
