Much has been made about Paul Sturrock’s apparent late use of his substitutions during matches but the reality is that the Argyle boss is on a par with the opposition when it comes to making changes.
A trawl through the statistics for Argyle’s 16 Championship matches this season reveals that Sturrock has made 44 substitutions with the average time of his changes clocked in the 73rd minute.
By comparison Argyle’s opposition in those 16 games have, on average, made their substitutions in the 65th minute, just eight minutes earlier than Sturrock.
Fans have criticised the Argyle supremo for failing to make changes to the team when Plan A is not working, although it’s rare for any manager, let alone Sturrock, to make early changes unless injuries force unwanted substitutions.
Sturrock is a cautious manager and he is never going to make drastic changes before or even during half time, the stats show that he will make his changes, on average, in the 73rd minute; this gives the new player(s) at least 17 minutes to make an impact on the game.
Where some fans think that Sturrock could improve on his use of substitutions is to send on attacking players instead of defensive-type players. The canny Scotsman has a habit of shoring up a team by sending on a defender or defensive midfielder rather than an attacking player who might score a goal and put the result beyond doubt rather than the team grimly holding on with ten players behind the ball, waiting for the final whistle.
Do you think that Sturrock leaves the timing of his substitutions too late?
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It is fine to leave one late sub in case of injury but I feel that sometimes a sub or two is needed after about 60 minutes to give fresh legs. bringing on a sub with just 1 minute remaining is unbelievable although luckily it proved succesful with Mpenza. However he should have been brought on much earlier and then perhaps the result may have been different.
Sturrock has brought Mpenza on before with 10 seconds left! The stats may say different but Sturrock doesn’t make good use of his subs.
those sorts of stats mean nothing, luggy needs to sort his tatics out, bring on subs earlier
Perhaps Mpenza’s lack of fitness means he can only last a couple of minutes?! Seriously, I actually think 8 minutes less than average is a lot. It would be interesting to get the stats on timing of tactical subs – ie excluding those in the last 5 mins which are for time wasting, or injury related substitutions.
This is our chance to play manager, so here goes. Situation, Charlton and their desparate manager are in trouble 1 – 0 down and staring defeat in the face; solution is to throw caution to the wind and bring on 2 extra attackers. Argyle’s defence was holding, but under intense pressure, what does the manager do – NOTHING!! But what were the options, no Beast on the bench so shoring up the defence is out; alternative is to adopting the best form of defence ATTACK!!! play 2 in midfield Duguid & PG, use Mackie and Noone on the wings and have Fallon & Mpenza up front. This would have probably freightened Charlton and Argyle would have had all 3 points. Another slant on the argument is who could replace Summerfield from the start; well I said it over a year ago and several others have muted it this term, have a go at playing Seip in midfield along side Duguid; because he can read the game better than most, will certainly win a few balls and his distribution is good. It may also help him get forward more often, which he is doing ocassionally now – possibly out of frustration because he can see the attack needs more support; and Luggy can’t moan about his fitness or mobility. Finally, at one time we had a positive goal difference, achieved with a positive attitude on the park; now that we have slipped into negative ways our GD is going in the same direction.
gREAT Just what I have been suggesting..good minds think alike.
Good thinking WDGREEN.
theres a lot of managers use subs at the end of games as time wasting tactics…….it also disrupts any teams that are starting to get on top at the end as well….