Why the super sub is one of the most valuable roles in football (and why no one wants to be one)

Ask any forward labeled “super sub” if they’re proud of it, and you’ll get the same answer.

“I hate it,” said Adam Le Fondre, who scored eight of his 12 Premier League goals after starting as a substitute. “I always thought that I was good enough to influence the game from the start.”

Some see it as football’s most backhanded compliment. For the attackers, the select group who were not pushed back into midfield or defense in youth football, it is even more of a kick in the teeth. They have gone through their football lives as the main players, but have now become known for their contributions from the bench.

But the truth is that super subs are almost always a crucial part of the wider club success.

“It’s a fantastic position to have four good strikers,” says former Premier League manager Harry Redknapp The Athletics. “When you have someone on the bench you can look around and think, ‘Yes, he can get me a goal’. When you sit there with nothing on the bench and no goalscorers, it’s a very difficult situation.”

At Tottenham Hotspur, perhaps the most successful period of his 34-year tenure in football management, Redknapp developed a reputation for stockpiling and rotating top-class strikers. During his time in north London, Redknapp had Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, Darren Bent and Robbie Keane, all of whom scored more than 100 Premier League goals, as well as Roman Pavlyuchenko.

“I was lucky that I knew the strikers I had well, and they were great guys and professionals,” says Redknapp. “I have worked with Crouch before and have known Jermain since he was fourteen. Attackers want to get on the field. They are eager to score a goal. The guys I had didn’t sit there and sulk. They want to take the field to prove that they should be playing at all – almost to stick two fingers up at you for not starting them. That’s what you want.”

Redknapp valued impact substitutes throughout his managerial career (David Cannon/Getty Images)

As if to prove the point, Defoe, Crouch and Pavlyuchenko are three of seven players to have scored a record five winning goals as substitutes in the Premier League. Of Defoe’s 162 Premier League goals, 24 came off the bench, another league record. During Redknapp’s tenure, his strikers fired Spurs to the Champions League alongside Gareth Bale and Luka Modric, the first time they had reached Europe’s premier club tournament since 1962.

This season, Jhon Duran has emerged as the Premier League’s standout super sub. The Colombian forward has scored six goals in nine games in all competitions for Aston Villa this season, with his second-half strike from distance in Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League among the best of a spectacular run .

His goal return would be excellent for the 20-year-old if he were Unai Emery’s main striker, but he has spent just 28 percent of his available Premier League minutes on the pitch and has scored five of six since. start the game on the bench.

Duran has only started three times in the Premier League for Villa since moving to the MLS from Chicago Fire in 2023 and is not yet seen as a 90-minute player by the Birmingham club. He is direct, dares to take risks, is eager to use his powerful shot from distance and is quick enough to exploit the remaining space when the game starts in the second half.

Replacing Ollie Watkins, a ruthless presser who sticks to the game plan and tires the defense, the conditions are perfect for ‘captain chaos’ to take advantage of the England striker’s hard work.

“(For substitutes) it’s often about trying to help them understand their role within that team,” says Sammy Lander, a dedicated substitutes coach and consultant who has worked with several club and national teams, including the USMNT. “Aston Villa is a very good example of this. You can easily identify squad roles within their team.

“I work with clubs where we recognize specific quiet periods for existing starters, and then we focus on suitable substitutes. Dealing purposefully with subs is important. Emery doesn’t just turn around to look at a player, hold him in attack and hope for the best. There are processes.

“For many clubs it is still an overlooked part of the game, where you have the opportunity to bring in new tactics, players and solutions. When I started in my role, I did a large survey of managers and staff and found a recurring answer: that replacements were often made on a gut feeling. I would be very surprised if Villa operates at that level. It seems like they have much more of a process with Duran, which is why they are so successful.

Duran had another successful intervention against Bayern in midweek (Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Emery supported that idea at his post-Bayern press conference. Before the match, he spoke to his assistants and players about Duran’s ability to shoot from long range being a potentially effective tactic to exploit Manuel Neuer’s positioning, as the German goalkeeper often comes out far from his line. He also linked it to a goal he scored against Hibernian in last season’s Europa Conference League qualifying rounds, where Pau Torres played a similar pass to his assist for Duran against Bayern.

While no forward is ever completely satisfied with limited contributions from the bench, taking advantage of tired legs can often be a route to goals. Le Fondre, who made his name as a prolific striker in the EFL, got his Premier League break in 2012/13 with Reading, scoring 12 goals in his only season in the top flight. Of that number, eight were scored from the bench, the fifth highest number of substitute goals in Premier League history.

Like Duran, he benefited from the hard work of another striker occupying the centre-backs before often coming on and impressing from the bench. In his case it was the 188 cm tall Russian striker Pavel Pogrebnyak.

“When I sit on the bench, I watch the defenders and judge their tendencies,” says Le Fondre, 37, who now plays for Manchester’s FC United in the seventh tier of English football. “If someone doesn’t play a great game, I know that’s the defender I’ll choose. I’ll be looking for spaces to see if I can exploit them when I get in.

“When I came on, of course we were chasing a game or trying to find a winner. With that mentality, the team changes the way it plays. We’re going to take more risks and put the ball in dangerous areas a lot more, so I’m obviously going to take advantage of that. Playing in the foreground and being a bit more assertive will always help.”

Le Fondre after scoring the second of two late substitute goals against Chelsea in 2013 (Scott Heavey/Getty Images)

A positive team culture is an essential part of ensuring ‘supersubs’ don’t become frustrated by their diminished role. Manchester United’s treble-winning side of 1998-99 had Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in attack, four international strikers who could easily have found a move elsewhere to become starters. But Alex Ferguson created an environment at Old Trafford where competition was strong and drove each other forward.

“The problem is not when you have too many, but when you don’t have enough,” says Redknapp. “The competition makes the players enthusiastic. The best motivation is when you know, “If I don’t do something quickly, the manager will send me away.”

“Watkins is playing very well and he’s a top player, but he’ll think, ‘Wait a minute.’ Every time the other guy comes on he keeps scoring a goal. How long will he keep starting me and not put him in the starting line-up?’ It puts pressure on whoever owns that shirt. They know they are under heavy pressure when the substitutes come off the bench and score to keep their place in the starting line-up.”

Duran’s role in the Villa side, developed by former England and Australia Rugby Union head coach Eddie Jones, can best be described as a ‘finisher’. The concept of starters and finishers, which is inspired by closer pitchers in baseball, spins the negative connotation around substitutes and uses positive language, emphasizing the essential role players have off the bench in winning games.

Manchester United’s 1999 treble-winning side have strong competition up front (Alex Livesey/Allsport)

Former England boss Gareth Southgate adopted the language before England reached the Euro 2020 final, describing Jack Grealish’s impact using those terms. Eberechi Eze, who came off the bench three times in the run-up to England’s final this summer, played a similar role at the 2024 European Championship.

“It’s not just about the elf,” Eze said Mail Online in the summer. “It’s about the whole team, the culture, the collective. You win the tournament as a collective.

“It means putting your ego aside and focusing on what’s important for the team. If you have that kind of culture, which we have, you have the best chance. The manager talked about ‘finishers’. We call them finishers. We know that. The players who take the field have a mentality; there is a way to handle it. That role is important. It’s not just about the 11.”

Yet it is one thing to take on that role for a short period of time during a summer tournament for your national team, and quite another to accept that role long-term at club level. Le Fondre was willing to put his ego aside to contribute from the bench as Reading tried in vain to stay afloat in the Premier League, only to return to a more important role in the Championship the following season.

Villa have a long-term plan to include Duran and Watkins in the starting line-up, but they realize that Duran can only be a super sub for a limited time. He is a precocious talent with confidence in his ability to back it up, and suitors will look to sign his signature as they did in the summer when he had close links with numerous clubs including West Ham and Chelsea.

“(Duran’s) is becoming more and more sought after by the week,” says Redknapp. “His performances off the bench have clubs looking at him for the next window. He is in a good position under Emery at the moment, but he won’t want to spend a year doing what he is doing. He will want to start.”

(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)