Fernando Roig’s proposal for finishing La Liga

Fernando Roig is the man. When he speaks, I’m very willing to listen. He has offered a proposal for the best way to finish La Liga that is a bit outside the box but I do think considers the well-being of the players in an important way.

The idea of games every 48 hours has been tossed around by others, but the important alteration coming from Roig is that he wants to increase the number of substitutions allowed in a match. Five substitutions would allow managers to maximize their team depth without sending out the equivalent of a U-23 side every other match.

The caveat, of course, is two-fold. One, you are changing (temporarily) a fundamental law of the game, and with that change will come different tactics. I think of college soccer in America, where there are far more substitutions (and players are actually also allowed re-entry), the result is an amount of pressing that would be unsustainable without the changed rule. The other side is that a coach has to be willing to use the extra subs for them to be effective, and many managers just do not have 16 players (more as you rest players or they get injured) they would be willing to trust in a league match game in/game out.

If we have to cram a large number of games in a short period of time in order to finish the season, some steps will certainly have to be taken to protect players. I think Sr. Roig presents an interesting option that could work. What do you think?