Five lessons from the Bundesliga ahead of Chelsea’s return

Chelsea’s return to action is just one week away. What lessons can the Blues learn from the Bundesliga’s head start on a post Covid league?

The Premier League is finally set to return this week after the long Covid layoff. The Bundesliga has been back for about a month now and they have shown that football can work still, but it will be different. What are some of the lessons Chelsea can take from the Bundesliga’s head start?

1. The whole five subs thing is not much of a thing

One of the big rule changes pretty much every league has implemented has been the use of five substitutes per match spread over three instances. The purpose is to give clubs more options with the players fatigued not only from earlier in the season, but the long layoff that broke up play.

So one would expect every club to be jumping on the five substitutes band wagon, right? Well no, not so much. While many clubs have often opted to use all five substitutes, there have been just as many instances of clubs using three or four rather than the full five. With several matches played, the use of all five has trended upwards, but there are still plenty of examples of clubs only using two or three substitutes a match.

Some of that is logistics. Bigger clubs have deeper squads and thus can make more subs without sacrificing quality. Smaller clubs simply cannot do the same. Some of it also pans out tactically. Just because a club can replace five of their outfielders a match does not mean they should. That is a lot of upheaval and every sub offers a new opportunity for the plan to fall apart.

Time may see teams adjust to the five sub rule more and more (especially if it remains beyond this end of season) but for now it is a bit scatter shot in its implementation.