COPEROBEFORE THE FIRST WHISTLE
A practical guide to your 7v7 soccer rotation
A soccer substitution planner helps you decide who plays, who rests, and when to make the next change before the match begins. This free worksheet is built for seven players on the field, including the goalkeeper, with a roster of seven to twenty-two. It produces a rotation sheet and a playing-time table together, so you can check the consequences of a lineup instead of guessing from a list of names.
Plans aim to balance playing minutes while keeping more of the current lineup on the field when possible. The change summary counts incoming replacements after kickoff, including halftime. A goalkeeper changing roles while staying on the field is not a replacement. Manual edits update both minutes and change counts, so review them together before printing.
Build a usable plan in one minute
Start with the players who will be available for the entire match. Replace the example roster with one nickname or jersey number on each line. Blank lines are ignored. Players with the same name remain separate entries; their list numbers help you tell them apart throughout the sheet. Before generating, compare the list with the players you actually expect to attend.
Choose one continuous period or two equal halves. Enter playing minutes only: for two thirty-minute halves, enter thirty, not sixty. Leave halftime, water breaks, and time before kickoff out of that number. Then choose a substitution interval. A ten-minute interval in a twenty-five-minute half gives sections of ten, ten, and five minutes. The second half begins again at zero, with its own final section.
Choose the goalkeeper for each period and press Generate rotation. Read the bench as carefully as the starting group. Check the planned minutes below the rotation sheet before printing. If you change the roster, timing, structure, or goalkeeper choices afterward, generate again to make those settings apply. The old sheet remains visible until you replace it, but saving, printing and lineup editing pause while it is out of date.
Equal playing time starts with the goalkeeper choice
Total playing time includes both goalkeeper and outfield minutes. The minutes table separates those roles because two players with equal totals may have very different experiences. Bench minutes are the remaining match time. A player’s total and bench minutes should add up to the full playing duration, while the goalkeeper and field columns add up to that player’s total.
With a fixed goalkeeper, that player plays the whole match in goal. The fairness summary compares the other players, who share the six outfield places. For example, ten players in a sixty-minute match have one goalkeeper with sixty planned minutes and nine outfield players sharing three hundred sixty minutes. Each outfield player’s target is forty minutes. Ten-minute rotations can fit that example evenly, although other settings can produce a difference.
With different goalkeepers in two halves, each keeper already has a half of playing time. The planner considers that time when assigning their outfield appearances in the other half. The fairness summary then includes everyone. This avoids treating a keeper’s thirty minutes as if the player had spent those thirty minutes on the bench.
Complete equality can be mathematically impossible. With more than fourteen players and two different half-match goalkeepers, each keeper’s guaranteed half is already longer than an equal share of all seven places. That limitation appears beside the result. In other cases, a displayed difference reports the actual schedule; it does not prove that every possible alternative would have the same difference.
Read the actual minutes, not just an average
An equal playing time calculator for soccer can show a useful target, but an average alone is not a substitution plan. The rotation interval determines the lengths of the available playing sections. A short final section, a goalkeeper assignment, and the number of substitutes can all affect how closely a schedule reaches its targets. This planner reports the minutes in the generated lineups rather than replacing them with an ideal average.
The minimum, maximum, and spread make the result easier to inspect. A spread of five means the most-used player in the comparison group has five more scheduled minutes than the least-used player. It does not mean each player is five minutes away from an average. Look down the individual rows, especially after manual changes, and check any warning that a player has no scheduled minutes.
Consider eight players, two twenty-five-minute halves, different goalkeepers, and a ten-minute interval. The keepers may also need outfield time in their other half. Simply giving each keeper twenty-five minutes and all six others fifty would use too many field places. Use the actual lineup and minutes table to see the tradeoff, then decide whether a shorter interval would make your intended rotation easier to manage.
Make a manual substitution without losing track
Each rotation has six editable outfield slots. Choose a player from a slot’s menu to adjust that section. If the selected player is already in another slot in that same section, the two players swap. If the selected player is on the bench, that player replaces the current choice. The goalkeeper cannot be selected for an outfield place during the period they spend in goal.
After an edit, the bench, incoming and outgoing groups, and every player’s minutes update together. Check the following rotation too: a changed lineup can change who needs to come on or off at its boundary. Later lineups do not rearrange themselves to compensate for your edit. This keeps your other decisions intact, but means you should review the full minutes table again.
Print a sheet you can use on the sideline
Use Print / Save PDF after checking the plan. Your browser opens its normal print dialog, where available printers and PDF options depend on your device. The sheet includes the match settings, roster, edited lineups, substitution groups, minutes, and planning limitations. The form and this guide are left out. Long plans may continue over several pages, so review the print preview before taking the sheet to the field.
Both Letter and A4 paper work with the print layout. On a phone, use the same button and your browser’s print or PDF destination if it is available. A print request does not confirm that a file was saved or paper was printed. Leave space in your matchday routine to check the output and write down actual changes during play.
Check the match rules and handle changes honestly
This worksheet does not decide when a substitution is allowed. Your competition may restrict substitution opportunities, reentry, goalkeeper changes, or roster size. Confirm the applicable rules and wait for the referee’s permission. A planned ten-minute change is a reminder to look for the next permitted opportunity; it is not permission to send a player onto the field.
The plan assumes the whole roster is present and available throughout. It does not track injuries, late arrivals, early departures, stoppage time, positions, or an active match clock. Before kickoff, update the roster and generate again if attendance changes. During a match, use your judgment and record departures from the sheet. Regenerating a full-match plan does not preserve minutes already played.
Common questions before you generate
Is the plan guaranteed to be exactly equal? No. It aims to balance playing time within the chosen sections and goalkeeper assignments. Always read the actual totals and spread. You can adjust a lineup or try a different interval, but the tool does not claim to find the best possible schedule.
Do I need an account, and does my roster get uploaded? No account is needed. The planner processes nicknames and numbers within this page. Roster text is not put into the URL or sent with the tool’s usage events. The site uses general analytics; that does not require sending your player names. Unsaved work is lost when you refresh or leave. Use Save locally to keep one valid plan, including lineup edits, in this browser on this device. Restore saved plan brings it back only when you choose. Anyone sharing the browser can restore it; clearing site data or private browsing can lose it. Delete saved plan removes that local copy and keeps the current worksheet.
Is this the Copero career simulator? This is a real-match planning worksheet for coaches. It does not simulate a player’s career, award scores, or run a football game. If you want to play, visit Copero’s football career simulator or the football games collection. If you are preparing a seven-a-side team, keep your roster here and start with the next match’s actual playing time.