Substitutes and Injuries

 

Is it really necessary to introduce substitutes into solo play, is the introduction of another small plastic figure going to change the game, and how many of us have extra outfield players in our teams to do such a thing in the first place.

Lets face it the when our little folk get injured it’s usually fairly terminal and needs hospitalisation to graft it’s broken limbs back onto the player or the base and this has the possibility of making them look like a casualty from the Battle of the Somme. If this happens in a match we may be able to patch it up quickly with Blu Tack but it’s hardly a long term solution.

For me these days it’s rare for such things to happen, but if a player ends up on the floor the clock is stopped and the player is located before it’s trodden to death, or my dog decides to eat the poor guy. Many a time a player is found hiding under a piece of furniture obviously aware of the threat of being eaten alive, they all seem to know the safest place is on the pitch, and that floor is fraught with danger.

Are Substitutes Viable

It’s probably not a viable solution to have a 12^th man with every team to overcome breakages or if you have a dog like mine, and not every team we own is bespoke or purchased new, and like I mentioned earlier that scenario personally is not that common.

In football substitutes are part and parcel of the game, and have been for over 50 years. In our games are they needed, we can’t really affect a game by changing players unless we give them special powers, or can we.

Some Ideas

Injuries apart a decent majority of substitutions are tactical. An extra forward to get that all needed goal, a defender to try and hold on to a slender lead, or a midfielder to try and change the pattern of play. that’s something in solo play that can be achieved without the use of substitutes, we just change the formation slightly and get on with it.

That may just fit the bill for many players, but there are also players that like to name their little folk and totally immerse themselves into their games and strive for that little extra realism. A substitute in solo play doesn’t have to mean needing a spare player to hand. Lets say you’re playing a 4-3-3 with a team, and one feels that a 4-4-2 would help in playing out that well earned away draw. One could just change formation and not bat an eyelid, or you could introduce a substitute to allow that formation to become active. So it could be possible to only allow that change by use of a substitution.

So How Could This Work

You could define how many subs are allowed by each team in your matches and competitions beforehand. That may be dependent on the era that your competition is based upon, a 70’s competition may only have one for instance, maybe two in the 80’s right up to being able to replace half the outfield players in the modern game, that’s entirely down to your own discretion. Once you’ve decided upon how many subs are to be allowed by teams in a game, you could then change formation only by the use of a sub. So if you allow 2 subs per team in a game, formations can only be changed twice and after the 2^nd sub that’s it until the final whistle irrespective of what occurs on the pitch.

If you name you’re players each sub would be noted on the team sheet. If no spare players are available the sub just takes the place of the player taken off, so he adopts their number but plays in his new position.

By only allowing a finite number of subs only allows a finite number formation changes. Obviously this will only work if you adhere to the formations in the first place, so it’s a method that will not suit everyone, but if you do it could throw a few tactical considerations into the mix by only allowing a formation change at certain stages of the game and they will be in limited supply.

Back To Injuries

Back in the early 50’s the Subbuteo rules of that era stated that any figure that ended up in the back of the net without a goal being scored was considered injured, and was not allowed back on for 5 mins whilst the trainer thrust an ice cold sponge down his shorts irrespective of where the injury was. Maybe Mr Adolph got a little irate when this happened (that's a player in the back of the net, not an ice cold sponge inserted in Mr Adolophs nether regions), and decided to penalise the poor guy for daring to enter the goal without the ball. I don’t think he was a malicious guy though, maybe it was just a way of simulating something that happens in actual football, or maybe in fact he was malicious and got fed up fishing players out of the net. If this rule was adhered to at that time I have no idea, it was something I’d never heard of until I actually read it.

Now also bear in mind during the 50’s there were no substitutes, so effectively one played on with 9 outfield players instead of 10, and 5 mins was 20% of the allotted 25 mins per half.

It might be an old quirky rule which you may think has no place in our games, but just step back for a moment or two and consider my reasoning here.

If say you’ve decided to allow subs and this happens you could sub that player straight away instead of waiting for a specific time period, and use the sub to come on for the injured player. Now the injured player may be an attacker, and all you have on the bench is a midfielder in say a 70’s based game, this would force an immediate change of formation, whether it was needed or not, so it could become a little tactical as well.

How we decide what constitutes an injury in our games is entirely up to us, I’ve only quoted what appeared in the actual Subbuteo rules of a bygone era, you may decide on your own methods here, maybe if a player is knocked over it could be considered injured is something that comes to mind. If a player is fouled one could roll a die, there’s probably many more ways if you stop and think long enough.

 Getting The Player Back Into Play

If a sub is incorporated to allow a change of of tactics or replace an injured player who is entangled in the net with an ice cold sponge down his shorts, he now needs to be brought into play. He may then be placed on the touchline where it intersects with the halfway line, and be used only after a member of his team plays the ball, he may not be used to take possession, he has to wait until they are in possession and a teammate has played the ball. Alternately just place him in the same position and wait the allotted time before he can once again be used. If during that time a goal is scored or the ref blows for half time he just comes straight back on at the restart.

Putting It All Together

Now you could just use a sub for injuries this way and forget all that formation stuff, it all depends how you play in the first place. But if you do adhere to some form of formation throughout your games a substitution could be a way of limiting how and when you can effect such a change, and by limiting the number of substitutions also limits how many times that it can happen during a game.

Add into the mix an injury simulation you could then force or limit that change even further. You may decide not to sub an injured player, or even have no choice because their allocation has already been used, and are forced to wait for the effects of the ice cold sponge to take effect. That time is obviously dependent on how long your matches are, and how long you decide to allocate for such things.

Timing the injury should you decide against a substitution would require the use of some form of extra timer whether that be digital, analogue or maybe an old sand timer, matters little as long as you have some method of measuring the required time at the required moment any suitable method can be employed.

It’s All Up To You

Whether you include subs in some form into your games it’s all up to you, for some it will be a pointless exercise, for others it may just add a touch of realism. I hope I’ve given some of you food for thought, or provoked the old grey matter into action to formulate your own variation of substitution and how and when to use them.

Keep On Flicking

Ian