The Premier League has made a U-turn on the top-flight's rules around substitutions following complaints by chiefly Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp
Klopp has been a particularly ardent supporter of changing the substitution rules in the Premier League permanently amid Liverpool 's busy fixture schedule.
"We played Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday and Tuesday, that's a horrible schedule. If we can make changes, we will do that. If it's not, it's not. It's essential that we go again for the five subs," the Liverpool manager said earlier this month.
During Project Restart , teams were allowed to make five changes during each game, in three separate periods. But that rule was dropped ahead of the 2020/2021 season, with clubs only permitted to make three subs per match since then.
Opponents to Klopp's demands claim that the rule change would favour the big clubs over teams at the bottom end of the table. The bigger teams tend to have larger squads with more depth in quality, with the ability to make five subs allowing them to fully utilise that.
Despite those criticisms, the Premier League has finally fallen in line with the other major European leagues, who kept the five subs rule in place.
Klopp will finally get his wish to make five subs per game after vote were cast at a meeting of Premier League stakeholders on Thursday, with enough support for the number of permitted subs to be increased and with it nine players allowed on the bench.