The effect of the new 5 substitute rule on the viability of Tottenham Hotspur wingbacks.

Antonio Conte is well known for his tendency to utilise attacking wingbacks. FPL managers will fondly remember Alonso under him at Chelsea managed 9 goals and 3 assists. More recently during his 20/21 session as the manager of Inter Milan his wing backs scored 15 goals and chipped in with 23 assists. This is something he continued to utilise last season on taking over as head coach at Spurs, his wingbacks managed an impressive 13 goals and assists between them in the 28 games he managed.

Whilst Conte gives his wing backs the attacking freedom that FPL managers look for he is also careful to manage their minutes closely which can be detrimental to FPL points. During his 28 league games as the Spurs boss he has substituted one of his wingbacks off in 18 games, in 5 games he has substituted both and in just 5 games did both of his wingbacks play a full 90 mins.

In order to see what the increase in substitutions to 5 could mean for the Spurs win backs we can look back to his 20/21 season at Inter Milan where 5 substitutions where allowed.

Much like at Spurs he had at lest two wingbacks for both the left and right flanks.

Perisic (LWB)

* 32 apps (20 starts at LWB)

* 17 games he played over 60mins

* 4 goals and 5 assists

* 1800 mins

Young (LWB)

* 26 apps (14 starts at LWB and 1 at RWB)

* 15 games he played over 60mins (one at RWB)

* 1 goals and 4 assists

* 1423 mins

Darmian (LWB/ RWB)

* 26 apps (3 starts at LWB and 8 starts at RWB)

* 10 games he played over 60mins 1 of which where played at CB

* 3 goals and 4 assists

* 1367 mins

Hakimi (RWB)

* 37 apps (29 starts)

* 28 games he played over 60mins

* 7 goals and 10 assists

* 2668 mins

Alongside the impressive attacking returns we can also see that all four players featured in over half of the games with Darmian playing the least with over 1300 mins in his 26 appearances. Over the season he substituted one of his wingbacks off in 19 games, in 16 games he has substituted both and in just 3 games did both of his wingbacks play a full 90 mins.

With Perisic joining him at Spurs for next session managers maybe tempted to load up on Spurs wingbacks. However a decision will need to be made if the potential for attacking returns is worth the carefully managed minutes which will cost managers both points for minutes but also possibly clean sheet points if substituted off before the 60 minute mark.