Southgate wants five substitutes for Premier League

England manager Gareth Southgate has said it is imperative for Premier League clubs to consider five substitutes per game in the wake of growing injuries amidst fixture congestion.

Manchester City star, Raheem Sterling and Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson both withdrew from the national squad ahead of their final Nations League group stage game against Iceland on Wednesday (November18) with fitness concerns. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said earlier this month it is “necessity” for clubs to have five substitutes per match in the Premier League, while Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola labelled the current three subs limit a “disaster”.

The English top-flight is the only major European league that decided against continuing with the system this season, used towards the end of the last term after the coronavirus pandemic truncated the length of the 2019/20 campaign.
“We were able to make five changes against Belgium, we made four in the end and clubs don’t have that option,” Southgate said.”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?”

The Premier League is not expected to reintroduce the five-substitute rule this season despite some strong support from at least half of its clubs, following a survey of the clubs by Sky Sports News earlier this month.