Has Chesterfield boss Paul Cook changed approach to using five subs?
Has Paul Cook made a slight tweak to his approach to subtitutions?
It is only a small detail but it is one our eagle-eyed readers have picked upon. Although the timing of his first subs – usually around the 70-minute mark – are the same, the number he makes has decreased.
For the first 14 games of the season in all competitions, Chesterfield made use of all five subs. But since the 6-2 hammering at Colchester United at the start of this month, that number has gone down.
In the next league game, a 2-0 win against Salford City, Cook made just three subs. Then it was four the following week in the 1-1 draw at home to Fleetwood Town. And on Saturday he made just three again at Tranmere Rovers.
It is only a small sample size but perhaps it is something to keep an eye going forward. Maybe he feels that using all five was causing too much disruption. Perhaps he wants to give some players more of an opportunity to unpick tiring defences late on. Maybe he wants to make it harder for players to ‘earn’ the right to come off the bench rather than it just be a gesture. Or perhaps there really is nothing in it at all and that it has just been because he did not want to influence how much added-time there was when Chesterfield were in a winning position.
But because there have been other changes since that Colchester horror show – full-backs not bombing on as much, playing three in central midfield rather than two, and sacrificing possession for a counter-attack approach, it makes you wonder if there is more to it and that is something he has identified.
After Colchester, Cook did say he was not like some other managers and that he was willing to change and he has been true to his word so far.