There are plenty of trends that come through the game, with the most impactful of late that I can think of being the inverted winger. An inverted winger is a player who is playing on the opposite side of the field compared to their stronger more dominant foot. So a left winger will generally be right footed, a right winger will be left footed. It seems to me that most good left footed players prefer to play right wing leaving the problem of having no left-footed players to play in the left side of a defensive unit.
The England National team most notably made it to the Euro 2024 Final with a right footed player playing at left back until the semi-finals and the manager curiously chose to only select one left-footed left back who had been injured in the months leading up to the tournament.
Although not a trend, something that has changed the game significantly is the expansion of substitutes allowed in all matches across all competitions from 3 to 5. When you consider there are 11 players per team and goalies are rarely substituted, you can now substitute half of your team in the professional game. Of course, in high school there is no limit to the number of subs you can make in a game, but we will get more into that later.
The expansion to 5 substitutes came about after the Covid epidemic struck and halted play across the world in March of 2020. When lockdown games began, the shift to 5 substitutes were made to accommodate the nature of life having shut down and players had to halt training and then pick back up months later. After one season where some leagues went back to 3 subs, almost all leagues now across the world have adapted to allow 5 substitutions in any given match. Though allowed 5 substitutions, some leagues only allow teams to substitute across 3 windows, to prevent teams trying to waste time making 5 individual substitutions.
On the positive side of things, this gives coaches a lot of flexibility and players a chance to rest and come off the field given the wide array of matches they are being forced to play which we will get into in another issue.
When Liverpool lined up against Nottingham Forest in September, seeing the lineup I immediately noticed two of Forest’s more dangerous players Callum Hudson-Odoi and Anthony Elanga were on the bench to start the match. I initially got excited, but I immediately was able to determine the strategy they were going for. It was immediately clear to me that Nottingham Forest were going to try and keep the game close as long as they could, focus defensively for 60-70 minutes, wait until the defense and midfield of Liverpool were tired and bring on those electric attackers. Hudson-Odoi was subbed on in the 54th minute and Elanga the 61st minute combining to score the only goal of the game on 72 minutes giving Nottingham Forest a famous win at Anfield 1-0.
When given the freedom of extra substitutes, a team has the capability to refresh a team and expand on the potential strategies in a given match. In a high school match, we have the capacity to substitute more frequently but in a way that isn’t necessarily a good thing. It is a challenge playing through the cold nights of March and April and as a coach, you can feel the need to put players in to keep them warm and useful throughout the match. It can feel counterproductive to put a player in late in the game that hasn’t gotten into the game yet. But the freedom of substitutes should play into our strategy - as we can now see is becoming a heavier part of the strategy in the professional game.
It becomes important as the season goes along and the games get more important, that a strategy is crafted that includes when and who to use as a substitute. Every player needs to know their role and that communication between coach and players becomes more and more vital for team morale and success. Of course it’s fun to start a match, but its arguably more important to be on the field at the end.
Thanks for reading. We will be back before Winter break where we will get to know our JV Head Coach Andres!
Our first Green Day is currently scheduled for Saturday January 11th at 11:30 AM.