Theo Walcott has urged Man United head coach Ruben Amorim to stop substituting centre-backs in the second half of games.

It has become a common tactic for the Portuguese manager to deploy, but speaking on the It’s Called Soccer! podcast, Walcott labelled it “dangerous”:

“You change the personnel all the time. The centre-halves… my centre-halves at Arsenal never got changed. Or at Arsenal now, centre-halves do not get changed. Do not change your back four.”

“Wingers get changed, which is annoying. I always used to get subbed and thought, ‘Okay, I’ve done my job.’ It was generally the pattern. [But] centre-halves? Don’t change that. It’s too dangerous for me.”

The tactic could have cost Man United against Chelsea

Despite being relatively comfortable defensively when 2-0 up at the weekend, Amorim opted to replace Harry Maguire with Leny Yoro on 70 minutes.

It forced a rejig in the back three, with Matthijs de Ligt moving into the middle to accommodate Yoro on the right.

However, just 10 minutes later, Yoro lost Trevoh Chalobah at the far post, with the Chelsea defender scoring with a header to make it 2-1. It set up a nervy end to the match.

Amorim is causing himself problems

Some may suggest that the work that a back three goes through is greater than a traditional back four, as they have to cover more ground across the width of the pitch.

However, the counter to that argument is that they usually get more support from their wingbacks, so there is probably not a lot of difference between the two systems.

It simply seems to be a force of habit from Amorim. Maguire was comfortably winning the battle against Joao Pedro and showed no signs of tiredness. Yet, it was decided that he should be taken off. Luckily, it didn’t end up costing the Red Devils any points on Saturday.

Read more about the Manchester United First Team Squad for 2025/26 here