Not every manager has a golden touch with substitutions like Sir Alex Ferguson.
Sir Alex Ferguson was famed for his call that changed the 1999 Champions League Final, and also his bravery to allow Federico Macheda to become a hero in 2009.
Thomas Tuchel’s disastrous substitutions with England cost the team the World Cup semi-final against Argentina, turning a 1-0 lead into a 2-1 defeat.
Here is a look back at the times Manchester United managers have got their substitutions horribly wrong.
What is the WORST substitution you have ever seen a Manchester United manager make?
Louis van Gaal’s unexpected Nick Powell call
Quite possibly the most bizarre substitution in the post-Ferguson era came courtesy of Dutch boss Louis van Gaal, who not afraid to make bold calls.
Trailing 2-1 to Wolfsburg in the final Champions League group game in 2015, Louis van Gaal decided to take Juan Mata off and bring Nick Powell on.
It was the first time Van Gaal had given any minutes to Powell since the humiliating defeat to MK Dons four months earlier.
To ask the teenager to influence a tight Champions League game was a real shot in the dark, and it did not pay off. United lost 3-2 and were eliminated, prompting the club’s board to start plotting to hire a new manager.
United sunk in Switzerland by Young Boys
In September 2021, Manchester United were riding high on ‘Cristiano Ronaldo fever’ after his sensational return to the club from Juventus.
Ronaldo had scored two goals on his comeback against Newcastle, before opening the scoring in a Champions League contest against Young Boys. But it soon went terribly wrong.
United were reduced to 10 men and conceded a second half equaliser. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer responded by taking Ronaldo off and replacing him with Jesse Lingard.
Lingard impacted the game by setting up a Young Boys winner with a misplaced backpass, with Ronaldo left utterly bemused on the sidelines.
Solskjaer’s Fred indecision
Sometimes the worst decisions are actually the ones a manager decides not to make.
In a Champions League group game against Paris Saint-Germain, it was clear that Fred was walking a tightrope on a yellow card.
Solskjaer chose to keep Fred on the pitch, and he quickly picked up a second booking, leaving United with an uphill battle.
PSG went on to win the game 3-1, one of three defeats that saw United eliminated.
Ruben Amorim’s frequent centre-back changes
Ruben Amorim managed to wear Manchester United fans down with his infuriating pattern of substitutions.
Amorim’s default change in every match was to swap his centre-backs between the 60th and 80th minute.
It was usually utterly pointless, only serving to rotate the game time around, and actually making life more difficult for the players.
The low-point came in United’s 1-0 defeat to Everton at Old Trafford last season. With the Toffees reduced to 10 men, Amorim chose to switch his centre-backs rather than focus on making attacking substitutions to break the dogged opponents down.
The Europa League Final mess
In-game management really was not one of Ruben Amorim’s strengths.
Another pattern from Amorim was that he really did not rate Kobbie Mainoo as a key player. Until he realised he needed him.
In the awful 1-0 Europa League Final defeat to Tottenham, Amorim waited until the 90th minute to send on Kobbie Mainoo to change the game.
It was too late. Mainoo had no time to influence the result, and deserved better after bailing United out in the quarter-final against Lyon.
Manuel Ugarte frequently replacing Casemiro
Unfortunately it’s Ruben Amorim again here, and it’s tied into his distrust of Kobbie Mainoo.
We all know Casemiro was a walking red card and often had to be taken off for the sake of the team after receiving a booking.
Unfortunately, whenever Amorim called on Manuel Ugarte to take his place, it almost always backfired.
One example came away at Tottenham last season when United were leading 1-0 and Ugarte was brought on. The team fell to a 2-1 deficit before De Ligt scored a late equaliser.
Another instance came with United leading 1-0 against West Ham last season at Old Trafford, before Ugarte came on and the result finished 1-1.
The late defeat to Newcastle last season also came in a game where Ugarte replaced Casemiro, and Michael Carrick has to take the responsibility for that one.
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