| abstract |
Substitutes have a key role in professional soccer in their ability to impact the outcome of
a game. Substitution decisions are also one of the few opportunities a manager has to influence a
game. Despite the value that substitutions hold and the increasing use of analytics in improving a
team's chance of success, limited research has been done on optimal substitution methods.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the first World Cup that implemented the International
Football Association Board's Substitution Procedure allowing for up to five substitutions rather
than the maximum of three. An exploratory analysis took place to consider the effect of this new
rule and timing of substitutions depending on the multitude of game situations a manager faced.
Substitution patterns of teams in the 2022 World Cup indicate that making substitutions earlier in
the game was of benefit to a team, however, this depends on the situation. Also teams of similar
quality chose to make their substitutions around the time in only limitation scenarios.
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