Moments after coming off the bench to replace an ineffective Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins slotted home to put Newcastle in front against Middlebrough on Monday night. Alan Shearer has had praise heaped on him ever since. "A masterstroke," said the Daily Mail.
The praise managers often get when a substitution pays off is not something I'm necessarily comfortable with. Why didn't they just start the player who inevitably comes on to play a critical role?
Let me offer an example. Take Shearer's friend here, the priest in the picture above. He's clearly gone to the wrong place of work: a building site, not his parish church. To make things worse, he's put on the wrong uniform as well. He's made a error, in other words, a grievous error. To give him his due, he probably realised this after a few minutes, and duly remedied the situation. By 10am, he was most likely back at the church, just an hour late for work. His fellow priests are glad to see him, but the fact remains he made a mistake, missed the mass he was supposed to say, and he won't be winning any Priest of the Month awards just because he realised it.
Michael Owen has managed just four shots in the six games Shearer has been charged with. He's not match fit, and shouldn't have been on the pitch in the first place, not in such a massively important game. This was a blip of his manager's part. In taking him off and throwing Martins on, his manager made no masterstroke, he simply made a mends for his earlier miscalculation. The fans should be pleased, but they shouldn't start thinking that their manager's a tactical genius.
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