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Comment by guelo | Hacker News Reader

Soccer would be a much better sport if it didn't have such restrictive substitution rules. Freer substitution would open up a new dimension to the game and give coaches and data analysts more room to strategize both during the game and when hiring players.

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It would then become American football where offense and defense get swapped out as soon as there's a possession change. No thank you. I like soccer just the way it is now.

Hockey manages to keep the action going while substituting half of the team at once. I think soccer could manage a couple guys at a time.

Rugby used to be the same with 3 subs, but these days you can pretty much sub half the team. It really destroys finding value in superior fitness, tactical planning of the starting side etc.

Freer substitutions would ruin the game. I believe that restricting substitutions to just 3 forces the managers to strategize their gameplan (especially in the event of a reduced team size due to player(s) getting Red Card) and in turn make the game more interesting.

> Soccer would be a much better sport

Very subjective. I personally think having a limited set of substitutions helps keep the game more interesting as every change can be hugely impactful to the team's tactics and the result of the game.

Obviously subjective but my fear is that it would become more mechanical and dominated by physical capacity and highly specialized players. Some people may see that as a good thing. Personally I like seeing how versatile players and smart coach deal with the constraints. On the other hand, I think this freedom works well for basketball and even futsal.

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