Opinion: Wilder’s use of his substitute bench against Spurs left something to be desired

I’ll admit, it wasn’t the first thing I spotted on Thursday night, but once I had, it took me a while to fully process it.

For those eagle-eyed fans, you’ll have spotted that we only had seven substitutes on the bench against Tottenham Hotspur, when the new rules mandate that we’re allowed to have up to nine these days.

Now, I don’t want to make a major deal out of it, after all we did win the game, so it’s not like it’s something that came back to haunt us, but at the same time, I do find myself questioning the idea of us leaving two spots on the bench empty when they could have been put to good use.

I said at the beginning of last month that the club needed to use the new rule to bring through some of the academy players after their season was called off early, meaning that a lot of them would be available for the first-team.

And whilst that was mainly so we could give more senior players a rest as we go through this hectic schedule, it was also so we could give those young up and comers some minutes that would help their development.

It’s similar to what Gary Neville said a few years ago about Pep Guardiola leaving space on his bench empty when he could have used an academy player to fill it. “He doesn’t have to bring the kid off the bench, he could just bring him for the experience, the feeling.”

The same could have been used here, and let’s face it, at 3-0 up in the dying minutes, how good would it have been to see an academy graduate get some minutes in an important Premier League game? And with some first-team players set to be out for a while, I hope that Chris Wilder doesn’t waste the opportunity again.

What about you? Would you have rather seen those free spaces taken up by academy player? Or would you rather have left them empty?