Pep Guardiola within his rights to name six substitutes, say the Sunday Supplement panel

Young players should not make up numbers as substitutes and Pep Guardiola was within his rights to name six players on the bench, say the Sunday Supplement panel.

There was uproar on Saturday afternoon when the Manchester City manager named only six substitutes rather than the allocated seven, with Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville saying: „I absolutely think it’s a joke. If you’re a youth team manager at City, ring him up and ask which kid deserves that boost.

„Forget the second team. Even if they played yesterday, bring one and put them on the bench. Bring a kid to travel with the team, help the kit man and put him on the bench to have the experience of being in a Premier League game.“
But the Sunday Supplement panel did not agree with the former defender and said that young players should not be used just to keep the numbers up.
Jonathan Liew – Chief Sports Writer, The Independent
It is his team and essentially he can do what he likes with it, he can name as many substitutes as he wants. I can kind of see where Gary Neville is coming from and it being an opportunity for a young player but you have to give these things out on merit.

It is the bench of a Premier League team in a Premier League game and does it do a young player any good to sit there and know he is there to essentially make up the numbers like a competition winner who has won a place on a Premier League bench.

It smacks of tokenism slightly if you’re just taking a young player along for the ride. It’s almost an insult to their talent or if you’re knackered and don’t have a chance of playing in the game, what’s the point?

Sam Wallace – Chief Football Writer, The Telegraph
He is certainly within his rights to do it and it angers people because Man City are a team with great resources, they’ve got this massive squad of development players as well and a squad that is expensively assembled.

I have to say though, I think seven substitutes is a bit of a joke anyway. It’s too many. I think it is a reflection of the wealth of our game, managers aren’t forced to make difficult decisions, they can just put as many as they like on the bench so I wasn’t as outraged as clearly some people are about it.
There are some mitigating factors about it. There was an U23s game the night before in Swansea and he felt the players were better used in that. Also, he’s got seven injuries to his first-team squad and in the end Brahim Diaz did actually come on in the game.

I think the response is partly because most people see City as a club that has no limit on its spending, that can buy anyone they like and fix any problem. To do that and as Gary Neville said, not give a young player a chance, seems to have upset people.

Obviously Neville knows better than us as an ex-pro about what a young player gets from being on the bench, but it strikes me that Guardiola did bring a teenager on so it’s not like he’s against that.

John Cross – Chief Football Writer, Daily Mirror
I wish I could be angry about it, but I’m not either. I don’t feel like Guardiola’s stance was about Riyad Mahrez at all, I totally feel like it was a protest about the injuries and personally, I think he is well within his rights to do that.

I do think some of the challenges on Man City players in the last few weeks have been scandalous. I was amazed this week when Alan Pardew basically said that the only way to stop Man City is to foul them. He confessed that his players totally deserved the bookings and punishments they received.
So is the protest about injuries cutting off his nose to spite his face and ostracising one of the younger players who would have seen it as an opportunity? I don’t think so because I agree with Jonathan, would the young player actually have got on? People say about being around the first-team environment and would it have done him any good? I’m not completely convinced it would have done.

You get the best team in the land and they are so good that the only way you can stop them is to foul them. Pep is 100 per cent right and we need to have a look a bit deeper and offer a little bit more protection. We should be celebrating Man City as the best team in the country, they are magnificent and they could go and win the Champions League but they can’t do that and do a really good thing for the Premier League when they’re being cut off at the knees and being fouled each and every week. It is wrong.
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