Within half an hour of Tottenham clinching a Champions League return at a sun-drenched Carrow Road in May, Antonio Conte was issuing fresh warnings about future challenges to come.
The Italian reasoned that this season could be even more difficult than the last, in part due to the north London club’s return to elite European competition and in part because of the Premier League‘s re-introduction of the contentious five substitute rule. The inference to Daniel Levy was clear: buy new players or else the project is doomed to failure.
Levy heeded Conte’s warning, sanctioning a summer spree that has so far yielded seven new players at a cost of around £125m. Although none of the recruits have started a game yet, the benefits of beefing up the squad were apparent during last weekend’s smash-and-grab at Stamford Bridge. Spurs demonstrated their new-found fortitude by hanging in and escaping a sustained battering with a point, as Conte’s substitutes made an impact.
Richarlison only completed four passes and failed to have a shot during his 33 minutes on the pitch, but provided energy and urgency that Spurs had lacked. Ivan Perisic’s influence was greater still, the Croatian delivering the corner from which Harry Kane scored the equaliser in added time. Spurs have perennially struggled against Chelsea and maybe the difference on this occasion was that Conte had game-changers to bring on; he made one substitute with Spurs 1-0 down and three after Chelsea had gone 2-1 in front.
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Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp were the biggest advocates for the continuation of the five sub rule in England, which made them targets when they failed to use up their allocation of three. Conte, though, consistently made use of his full complement of subs doing so in 60 per cent of Inter’s Serie A games, either to attempt to swing tight matches in Inter’s favour, or else give key players a rest once a comfortable lead had been established. Only on three occasions did he use fewer than three subs and on none of those did he use one or no subs at all.
Conte’s methods clearly worked. Inter ended an 11-year wait to win a Scudetto and in doing so ended Juventus’ near-decade long hegemony of the competition in the process, finishing a dozen points clear of AC Milan. In total, Conte’s substitutes made 17 goal contributions (goals and assists) to their eventual tally of 89; in other words just under a fifth of their overall total.
Alexis Sanchez was Inter’s most effective substitute in that regard, playing a direct part in three goals, while Christian Eriksen scored twice. But there were noteworthy contributions from wing-backs too: Matteo Darmian scored one goal and set another up after coming on, while Achraf Hakimi and Perisic supplied two and one assists respectively.
Goals and assists from Inter’s substitutes during 2020-21 season
- Goal contributions: 17
- Total goals: nine
- Total assists: eight
- Most goals: Christian Eriksen (two)
- Most assists: Achraf Hakimi, Alexis Sanchez (both two)
By expanding the number of subs available from three to five, managers like Conte now have greater flexibility with their changes and it is telling that Conte has swapped both wing-backs in Tottenham’s opening two fixtures. It seems unlikely that he would have done so had he still been operating under the constraints of three subs; having two more to play with opens up far more possibilities.
That was also evident during England Women’s European Championship win this summer. Sarina Wiegman named the same starting XI in all six of the Lionesses’ matches at the tournament but made at least five subs – there were six in the quarter-final and final which went to extra-time – in every game bar the opener.
As the tournament progressed it was clear that Wiegman had set “starters” like Ellen White who would play for an hour or so and then set “finishers” like her automatic replacement Alessia Russo, who would be brought on to add something different. It worked a treat. Russo scored four goals as a substitute – an all-time record in the competition – while Ella Toone and Chloe Kelly were England’s goalscorers in the final against Germany after both being summoned from the bench.
Such a tactic only works when a manager has quality in reserve as Tottenham now do. “I have the possibility to pick 11 players but at the same time know that on the bench are players that if they come in they can change the situation,” Conte said prior to Tottenham’s game against Wolves. “They can give the quality and the quality doesn’t drop after the substitutions.”
Tottenham now have a deep enough squad to compete on multiple fronts. Time will tell whether it will be enough to secure a first major trophy since 2008.
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