Against Spurs, Dzeko came off the bench to win the game for City with a key pass and a goal in the 17 minutes he was on the field. The Bosnia striker has more goals than Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez this season and yet both have more starts. But in the three league matches Dzeko has started, he has scored just one goal and City have won only one of those matches.

However, Premier League clubs agreed to allow five substitutions for 2022-23 following a vote in March. The following season substitutes were allowed for the first time in the FA Cup and the Scottish League. The first ever substitute to play in a senior match there was Archie Gemmill, in a League Cup tie for St Mirren against Falkirk. For the time being the Football League retained the rule that subs could only replace injured players but there were suspicions that some were feigning to allow their team to make what were, in effect, tactical substitutions. In 1967, therefore, the common sense decision was made to allow substitutions for any reason with a resultant increase in their frequency. In 1967-68, for example, West Brom used their substitute in half of their league games, while Dennis Clarke became the first to play in an FA Cup final.

#3 Leroy Sane (Bayern Munich)

The Premier League was the only major competition to abandon the rule because some clubs felt it gave those with bigger squads an unfair advantage. Solskjær’s love of substitutions has continued into his managerial career. He was the first manager to make a quintuple substitution in the Premier League, bringing on five substitutes at once against Sheffield United and making full use of the new law that allows managers to switch five players per game. The law will stay in place for the rest of this season and, most likely, next season, so Solskjær’s players will have their chances to match his various achievements coming off the bench.

This season's champions, Celtic, had the most goals by substitutes with 24 (21% of their 114 total), followed by runners-up Rangers with 14 (15%) then fourth-placed Heart of Midlothian (16%) and St Johnstone (24%), both with 10.

FAQ's

The issue would need to be raised before a Premier League shareholders meeting, then voted upon by clubs. And, as things stand, there is no meeting scheduled. In terms of concussion substitutes and semi-automated offside technology, they will only be discussion points during the Ifab meeting in Doha. All five of midfielder Scott Arfield's league goals in his last season at Rangers came from the bench. Meanwhile, Israel winger Liel Abada netted four league goals as a substitute and he was also among the replacements when he notched Celtic's second in the Scottish Cup final win against Inverness Caledonian Thistle. 360% rise in use of five subs When it first came in, I thought 'why?' I didn't agree with it at the time, but now it's just become the norm. There's two sides to it - I think it definitely benefits a bigger club with a bigger squad and more strength in depth. You can basically use near enough your whole squad on the bench. That is 20 more than the next highest season - 2007-08. Interestingly, that campaign was the last to feature three Scottish teams in European group stage action until 2022-23.

If that team continues to trail, the assistant professor at Villanova Business School adds that a second change must come before the 73rd minute. If that hasn't worked, a third and final change should be made before the 79th minute.

However, it has proven to be a popular addition, particularly with managers and players, and IFAB's Football and Technical Advisory Panels have recommended that competitions should be able to decide on an increased number of substitutions "according to the needs of their football environment." Clubs will, however, remain limited in the number of times they can make the changes with a maximum of three intervals allowed plus half time. The pandemic changed all that in 2020, though. In a move to reduce the impact of fixture congestion caused by Covid-19, world governing body Fifa allowed competition organisers to allow for a maximum of five substitutes. Nothing changed for the 2021-22 season, although five substitutes are allowed in FA Cup matches, and in October football law-makers the International Football Association Board recommended that five substitutions be implemented permanently in the sport. Ifab says the substitutions can be made on three occasions during a match, excluding any changes at half-time, while a potential sixth change can be made if a match goes to extra time. Another first occurred on that opening day of the 1965-66 season when Barrow substitute Bobby Knox scored against Wrexham. Later in the season Knox came on to play as stand-in goalkeeper against Doncaster Rovers and became the first sub to save a penalty. As they could only be used to replace injured players, substitutions were something of a novelty. West Brom, for example, first made a substitution on September 10 but not again until November 27 and used their substitute in only seven of their 42 league games. Their experience was not atypical.

The world governing body then chose, before the end of the delayed 2019-20 season, to extend the use of the rule - but said it was up to individual competitions whether it was implemented. It is a different game now," Fairclough added. "You have 18-man squads, but it was lonelier in the past. You were the only substitute, with 11 others all going out to play. Now there are six other lads getting changed next to you feeling the same way. Bret Myers has tested it against 1,800 fixtures across England, Germany Spain and Italy and believes that if a team is behind, it is vital for the manager to make his first substitution before the 58th minute. Second-tier clubs can name up to nine substitutes in matchday squads, while League One and League Two clubs will be allowed seven. The days of managers sweating over how to use their third substitution could soon be a thing of the past. Instead it will be how they deploy their fourth and fifth options from the bench that will cause them sleepless nights after football's lawmakers today decided to make permanent a change to its laws initially introduced after the COVID-19 pandemic.Scotland were the opponents for the first ever use of a substitute in international football, when Wales' original goalkeeper failed to arrive in 1889. The amount of guys I see standing at the side of the pitch at youth games is incredible. I don't know where they are going to get their opportunities. We're losing so many players by not playing games of football, it's frightening. Kids will just get fed up not playing. There's too many of them sitting on the bench.