Never forget who knows best when it comes to changes at Sheffield United or anywhere

Fans will always comment on substitutions, for better or for worse. So will journalists, for that matter. Too early, too late, just in time, not enough. Rightly so in both cases. The game always keeps us talking, it’s an essential part of it. But there are times when there’s something we all forget - the guy making those calls is far more qualified than we are and better placed. At the same time, not infallible.

I reckon managers get far too much praise when subs work out and far too much criticism when they don’t. Every decision is effectively an experiment with an unknown result. “Clueless” and “tactically inept” are not at the races.

Sheffield United are increasingly well placed to use their bench to good effect. There are variations and potential match winners to spring. Recently acquired pair Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, who you’d expect to be a regular starter when up to speed, and Tyrese Campbell are prominent among those.

How Chris Wilder and Alan Knill utilise this will have a big bearing on the season (as will keeping wanted players as this window week pans out). But if you take the recent 2-2 home draw with Queens Park Rangers, when the Blades so unexpectedly yielded a winning position to ten men, there are times when you can’t do right for doing wrong.

Wilder told me he sniffed trouble at 2-0 and was then criticised for not acting on his instincts at half-time. But, in a way, surely he did. He warned a team that had taken control once to do it again, in the reasonable expectation they could. No-one, at the time, was wanting him to ring the changes; the reaction was hindsight gone mad.

A more understandable gripe was over the timing of the second half subs as the visitors took control - five of them from as late as 77 minutes onwards after the visitors had truly got on top.

It’s a high wire act whether you go early or late. What is always the case, though, is that the manager has more knowledge of football and an insight no-one else gets from being close up in training. We are all managers and none of us will ever know whether the changes WE would have made would have worked.

Unlike the boss who lives or dies by them. So it’s a safe bet he gives them maximum thought - and that, in the random kicking of a ball, he won’t always be right.