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Substitution plans for 5, 7, 9 and 11-a-side

By the coach who built Team Selector. Updated 1 November 2026.

Subs are the hardest bit of matchday. You're watching the game, the clock and the bench all at once, and the player who's been sat there for twenty minutes is giving you a look. A plan you make the night before fixes most of it. Here's one for every format, with the sums done.

Rolling subs, and why they matter

Rolling subs (you'll also hear roll-on, roll-off) mean a player who comes off can go back on later. That's what lets you share the minutes out fairly when you've got more players than shirts.

Whether you can use them, how many changes you can make and how you make them (at any stoppage, from the halfway line, only with the referee's say-so) is down to your league. Check your league's rules before you plan anything. The plans below assume you can change players during the game, not just at half-time.

The sum behind every plan

Every plan on this page comes from one sum: players on the pitch, times the match length, divided by the players in your squad. That's each player's fair share of the minutes.

Then decide when to change. Here's the trick that makes it come out exactly level: split the match into as many equal blocks as you have players, and make one change at the end of each block, working down the list like the plans below. Ten players in a 50-minute game is ten blocks of five minutes. Eight players in 40 minutes is eight blocks of five.

If that's too many changes for your liking, change in groups. Split the squad into groups the same size as your bench and give each group one block on the bench. Twelve players with three subs is four groups of three, so the match splits into four blocks. It only works when the squad splits evenly into groups that size.

The match lengths below are examples to show the sums. Use your own league's.

5-a-side: 8 players, two halves of 20 minutes

Five on the pitch for 40 minutes is 5 × 40 = 200 minutes. Shared between eight, that's 200 ÷ 8 = 25 minutes each, so everyone sits out 15. Eight players, eight blocks of five: one change every five minutes.

Write the names down in order. Alfie, Bea, Charlie, Dev and Ellie start, with Dev in goal. Finn, Grace and Harry wait in a queue. Every five minutes, the next name down the list comes off and joins the back of the queue, and whoever's at the front of the queue goes on.

Alfie comes back on at half-time and goes in goal for the second half. Everyone plays 25 minutes.

7-a-side: 10 players, two halves of 25 minutes

7 × 50 = 350 minutes, and 350 ÷ 10 = 35 minutes each, so everyone sits out 15. It's the same list method with ten blocks of five. Alfie, Bea, Charlie, Dev, Ellie, Finn and Grace start, with Ellie in goal, and Harry, Isla and Jay are the subs.

Bea takes over in goal at half-time. Everyone plays 35 minutes. The full working, and what to do if one keeper plays the whole game, is in our guide to giving every player fair playing time.

9-a-side: 12 players, two halves of 30 minutes

9 × 60 = 540 minutes, and 540 ÷ 12 = 45 minutes each, so everyone sits out 15. A change every five minutes is a lot at 9v9, so change in threes: four groups of three, four blocks of 15 minutes, and each group sits out one block.

Build each group like for like where you can, say a defender, a midfielder and an attacker, so your shape survives every change. Group A (Alfie, Bea, Charlie) starts on the bench. Groups B (Dev, Ellie, Finn), C (Grace, Harry, Isla) and D (Jay, Kai, Lily) start, with Grace in goal.

Dev comes back on at half-time and goes straight in goal. Everyone plays 45 minutes.

11-a-side: 15 players, two halves of 40 minutes

If your keeper plays the whole game, leave them out of the sums. That's ten outfield places for 80 minutes, 10 × 80 = 800 minutes, shared between fourteen outfield players. 800 ÷ 14 is 57 and a bit, which won't split into tidy blocks. From U12 up, fair over the season is a sensible aim anyway, so here's a simple pattern that gets close.

Four off, four on, three times: at 20 minutes, at half-time and at 60 minutes. Twelve outfield players sit out one 20-minute spell and play 60. The other two sit out the first 20 and the last 20, and play 40. Check it: 12 × 60 + 2 × 40 = 720 + 80 = 800. Next week, two different players take the 40.

Ollie stays in goal. Max, Nia, Alfie and Bea start on the bench. Give each group of four a similar mix of positions so the team keeps its shape at every change.

Run it with a timer

Don't trust yourself to watch the clock. You won't, because there's a game on. Set a repeating timer on your phone for your change interval and let it nudge you. Better still, give the plan and the timer to an assistant or a parent you trust, and let them call the changes while you coach.

Write the changes down as well, on the back of your hand if you have to: "5: Alfie off, Finn on." When the timer goes, make the change at the next stoppage, not in the middle of an attack. Don't chase the exact second either. A change that's a minute late is fine, and over a season the odd minute evens out.

Tell the players before kick-off

Read the plan out in the warm-up, or put it in the group chat the night before. Every player should know when they're coming off and when they're going back on: "You're off at 15, back on at half-time."

It changes how the bench feels. A player who knows they're back on in ten minutes doesn't sulk. Parents can see the minutes are fair before a ball's been kicked. And the next sub is ready on the touchline when the change is due, instead of behind the goal with a packet of crisps.

When someone arrives late

Plan for it. If you know someone's often late, put them in a spot that starts on the bench. Harry in the 5-a-side plan and Jay in the 7-a-side plan don't go on until 15 minutes, so a late lift costs nothing.

If someone turns up later than that, or turns up when you weren't expecting them at all, don't rebuild the plan on the touchline. Put them at the front of the queue so they go on at the next change, and everyone else waits one change longer. Then fix it properly at half-time: add up who's played what, then share out the second half so the totals come out as level as you can make them.

Injuries work the other way round. The next sub goes on straight away. If the injured player can't come back, take them off the list, and the queue gets shorter for everyone else.

Where Team Selector comes in

A plan on paper works. Keeping it working when the morning doesn't go to plan is the hard bit, and that's what Game time in Team Selector does.

Before kick-off it builds the plan: who plays when, each player's minutes, and a Fair, Nearly fair or Uneven verdict. Change any of it by hand, or tap Reshuffle for a different plan.

During the game the Next subs card counts down to the next change and shows who's coming off and who's going on. Your phone gives you a sub alert when it's due, and on iPhone the score, the clock and the next subs sit on your Lock Screen. If a player gets injured or turns up late, tell the app and it replans the rest of the match from the minutes actually played.

At full time you get the result and everyone's minutes, counted towards the season. It all runs on your phone, so it works at a pitch with no signal.