ONE of the biggest positives from Bournemouth’s big win over Lincoln for boss Marco Rose was that it gave him a big confidence boost in his wider squad for him to have more top options off the bench.
Rose’s earliest sub in a league game this season came with 21 minutes to go at home against Everton, when Tyler Adams was brought on for Lewis Cook.
But the remainder of his subs have come in the final 20 minutes, with the Cherries looking to hold on to leads, which they have failed to do.
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In each of the three league games so far, late goals have cost Bournemouth points.
In the first, Manchester City scored in the 84th and 90+1st minutes to win 2-1, before Everton scored in the first minute of stoppage time to equalise at 1-1.
Then, Newcastle netted in the 88th minute to make it 2-2, and to again see Bournemouth drop two points from winning positions, with seven points dropped when leading heading into the final ten minutes of the three games so far.
But Rose made eight changes to his starting XI from the Newcastle draw for the visit of Lincoln City in midweek, as Bournemouth ran out convincing 4-0 winners.
The boss said that performance, with all the changes, has given him further confidence in making changes earlier in games, which will be key as fixture congestion builds through the season with Bournemouth playing in four competitions.
Asked about the timing of his subs when looking to hold on to leads, Rose told the Daily Echo: “See, the way we conceded the goals is in Manchester, I did the substitutions and we conceded the goal, so maybe we’d have been better not changing anything.
“Then in Newcastle, I was on my way to change and we conceded the goal.
“I think Jebbo [Daniel Jebbison] and [David] Brooksy were on my side and we conceded the goal. So it's not about how and when to change.
“A fact is that we're going to have many games now and it's about winning games.
“But on the other side, the load for many players is getting higher and higher, so you have to find solutions.
“And for me, the best signal from Tuesday is that I'm able to change after 60 minutes to keep a player fresh, because the 60 minutes physically is mostly a crucial part of getting tired.
“Our body is like, if you play longer than 60 minutes, then you get in sore circumstances. And that's why I'm happy to get the chance to do it earlier, maybe.
“But I don't know I'm going to do it. It depends on the game, how I feel, how is the situation, are we up, are we down? So we're going to see.”
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