It was all the way back in October that Thomas Tuchel first suggested he was unhappy with the Premier League's choice to restrict clubs to just three in-game substitutions. The spectators want the top players on the pitch, they want them healthy and they want them fit and in shape, hungry," the Chelsea head coach said.
"You cannot always provide it if you play so many games in so many different competitions. And given the fact that we only have three changes allowed in the Premier League – and not five like the other leagues – it is a big thing that we have to cope with."
Fast forward two months and Tuchel's protestations became vehement with Chelsea in the midst of a selection crisis caused by injuries and a spate of positive Covid cases. “I absolutely cannot understand, zero percent, why we are the only league who plays through winter and why we are the only league with three substitutes in a period of heavy, heavy Covid threat and situations," the German said in December.
