The Five-substitution Option Enhances Teams' Running Performance at High Speed in Football

The aim of this investigation was to describe how the introduction of the five-substitution option affected football teams' run- ning performance. A comparative analysis was performed in 17 professional football teams for the 2019-2020 (up to three substitutions) vs 2020-2021 (five substitutions option) seasons in LaLiga. The five-substitution option increased the number of substitutions (from 2.9 +/- 0.1 to 4.2 +/- 1.0 substitutions/match, respectively; p < 0.01, Effect Size (ES) = 2.11) but it did not change the time selected for the first substitution (from 57.5 +/- 13.0 to 56.2 +/- 13.7 min; p = 0.06, ES = 0.1). Total running distance was similar between seasons but running distance at 21.0-23.9 km/h (from 3.0 +/- 0.4 to 3.2 +/- 0.4 km; p = 0.01, ES = 0.6) and at >= 24.0 km/h (from 3.0 +/- 0.6 to 3.2 +/- 0.5 km; p = 0.01, ES = 0.3) were higher with the five-substitution option. These increases were associated with a higher distance covered by starting players (p < 0.05) rather than an effect of substitute players. With the five-substitution option, team coaches increased the number of substitutions per match which enhanced the possibilities of the team's staff to manage players' physical load. The five -substitu- tion option allowed also increased running performance at >= 21.0 km/h during the matches.