Bilic brandishes rival PL manager as ‘Selfish’ after West Brom win
West Brom boss Slaven Bilic has weighed in on the debate to reintroduce five substitutions in the Premier League following calls from Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
With this season’s congested schedule Klopp and other Premier League managers have been proposing the reintroduction of the five substitutions per game rule, which was first brought in for project restart earlier in the year.
Bilic was asked about his opinion on the matter after his side’s win over Sheffield United and he believes that Fulham boss Scott Parker has the right approach.
Bilic is quoted by Sky Sports as saying, “Klopp is also selfish, he is looking at it from his point of view. Klopp is not the only one of course. He’s very vocal and I respect him for that, he’s not hiding, he’s saying his opinion.
“I agree with Chris Wilder that we are also looking at what is best for us. The difference between three subs and five subs is our advantage when we play those big clubs.
“Scott Parker said the best thing, that the decision should be done by the authorities, by the Premier League or the FA. Then maybe I’m not going to be happy with the decision but I will have to go along with it. We all want to protect the players.”
Player welfare is at the heart of this debate as Liverpool have seen a huge increase in injuries this season, which is why Klopp started the debate in the first place.
As Bilic mentions, it has been suggested that the five substitutes rule will benefit bigger clubs who have a deeper and stronger squad than clubs like West Brom.
This is true but those big clubs also have to play more games due to their participation in the Champions League.
However, it is their responsibility to build a squad to deal with those extra games and they had the chance to bring in more players during the summer.
Bilic made all three subs as his side won their first game of the season with a 1-0 win over Sheffield United on Saturday night.
With the rule already brought back in for clubs in the EFL, it could only be a matter of time before we see the rule reintroduced in the Premier League and we will see if those big clubs do get an advantage.
In other West Brom news, some Baggies were blown away by one player’s performance against the Blades.
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