Gus Poyet has attacked the Football League for cutting the number of substitutes.

The Albion chief has described the decision as “nonsense” claiming it works against managers, players and fans.

The proposal, designed to help the financially stretched, was passed by clubs at an extraordinary general meeting of the League in Leicester on Thursday.

It only applies to League matches. Albion and their Championship rivals will still be able to name seven subs in the FA Cup and Carling Cup, as will Crawley and other League Two and One teams in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

Poyet told The Argus: “I totally disagree with it. I think it has been suggested by some clever chairmen and the rest went with it.

“It’s nonsense if somebody at the Football League is telling me that a club will be able to carry on because of, for financial reasons, going down from seven to five substitutes.

“If a club is having really bad financial problems then, with respect to them, they shouldn’t be in professional football. Rules and regulations all over the world show that there are seven players on the bench.”

Poyet believes the reduction will make life more difficult for him and his players and less enjoyable for supporters.

He said: “It’s going against the game itself.

The manager has less options, which means you have got to sort out problems in a different way and make really strange and tricky decisions about who is on the bench and who is not.

“The players are the ones that lose out the most, because ones that are supposed to be a really important part of the team are not going to make the squad.

“The game is for the fans and if you have got options and can have special players on the bench the better it is for them.”

Poyet’s assistant Mauricio Taricco is a doubt for the final friendly of Albion’s Portugese tour against Olhanense tonight (7pm) after sustaining a shin injury in Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain.

“I am expecting a team which is very good on the ball, orgnised and strong,” Poyet said. “They are playing in the top division, which means it is going to be very difficult for us.

“It will be totally different to the style of football played in England, which I like. It makes the players think and make decisions on the pitch.

“That is something we would like to improve, because the bigger and better we become as a club the more you are going to have to deal with situations on the pitch.”