Something that has surprised me in the five substitute era is that there isn’t a manager who is trying to game the system some how. It seems like this would be a prime chance for an innovative coach to use his five substitutes to do something different. For example, why not lineup in a 5-0-5 and just launch balls into the box and see if a five striker formation can’t snatch a few goals early and then drop in some subs to play a more typical formation?
At the very least, it might just spice things up. MLS has been really weird this season in terms of consistent quality and if that’s going to be the case anyway, why not just turn a few games into an intentional mess instead of one where things just aren’t right because of the circumstances we’re in?