Is our 1st team squad too small?

[Scaring Europe to Death]

Pep rotates his regulars to such an extent that it helps perpetuate the myth that City have got 2 World class players for every position.

In reality, Foden, Stones and Akanji can all play in 2-3 positions whilst even Doku (admittedly with mixed results) can pay on both wings.
Lewis has featured at both Right Back and Midfield, and Gvardiol's role seems to be evolving

However, the most impressive aspect is that City are still in contention despite such a huge overhaul since the end of 21-22

 

[ninjamonkey]

Yes, It's too small. I know pep prefers a smaller squad because it's easier to manage and keep happy but we're dangerously small, a lengthy injury list would destroy our season.

If he had complete faith in them all then perhaps its fine, but he doesnt. Certain players like Gomez and Phillips and for this season at least until he beds in Nunes, he has no faith in so you may aswell deduct them from the squad list.

If we brought in an extra usable defender to replace gomez, a phillips replacement and Nunes became a viable starter on top of replacing anybody else that leaves then I would still say we are perhaps slightly light but it's manageable.

Having 6 defenders in the squad, 1 of which being consistently injured, is borderline negligent, that needs addressing this summer then we won't be forced to play players that are grossly underperforming through sheer lack of numbers.

 

[Stephen230]

It’s obviously the way he prefers it. I’m pretty sure if he wanted more players, they’d get them him.

Until there’s evidence that it’s not working, I’ll probably trust him to do it his way, even if it sometimes doesn’t seem to make sense looking in from the outside.

 

[Andouble]

I said the other week that I think we need at least 2 additions to the squad before we lose any players in the Summer.

We have to take into account the extra Champions League games next season and I think you're going to have to maintain good form in that competition to ensure you are highly seeded going into the knockouts. Maybe only if you guarantee top 8 early could you look to rest players in any of the 8 league stage games

absolutely have to have a bigger squad going forward with the additional CL games and the expanded Club World Cup (if the club cares about that).

 

[bluemoonandmore]

Gvardiol and Ake are good, but I can't help but think what it'd be like to have someone in the vein of Cancelo occasionally, delivering balls for Haaland.

I agree that we could use someone in the mould of Cafu or Evra. The energetic two way player with excellent technical ability. Rico Lewis could be that guy hopefully with a bit more of experience. At the same time it seems like Guardiola is looking for a solid back four, and to write off Gvardiol for not adding enough forward is premature. Especially given his recent contributions. It is a hard ask for him to be the allround player as of now, but he has the overall understanding of the game and the physical abiltites in his locker imo. So I am a believer that he will turn out as a better player than Cancelo in the end.

 

[Bluearmy]

It’s obviously the way he prefers it. I’m pretty sure if he wanted more players, they’d get them him.

Until there’s evidence that it’s not working, I’ll probably trust him to do it his way, even if it sometimes doesn’t seem to make sense looking in from the outside.

The issue this season is we lost 2 established squad heavyweights in Gundogan and Mahrez and their replacements (Nunes/Doku) havent really hit the ground running to this point, which compounds the issue around the already small squad.

 

[alexmcity]

Yes, It's too small.

Your point is based on a hypothetical scenario (too many injuries at once). But we would have been fighting for back to back trebles now if we weren't unlucky vs Real. Pep's exceptional success shows he's right. He trusts our medical staff to do their job and we don't tend to sign injury prone players.

Of course, shit can happen injuries wise, but you don't take into account the down sides of having a big squad: more unhappy players and less squad unity. There are risks and trade-offs in both directions. Pep tends to get decisions like these right.

 

[WesthoughtonJohn]

As per with these type of threads I rfer you to the graphic kindly supplied by FMwkdsoul:

This was December - we've sent Phillips on loan. So we had 2 slots available in January for NON-HG. So taking Gomez/Carson out - I make 19 available in the squad (are you excluding GKs??)
It's an anomaly this season due to Phillips and Gomez imho

 

[Cityfan]

Are you joking ? Rico is a talent we'd be stupid selling or loaning him out

He's punning on the word small. It's a joke.

 

[jrb]

No.

You can’t say it is when Pep isn’t using players like Nunes. Nunez came on at Forest for the last 5 minutes. He’s hardly played since signing for City.

Our squad is short of proven strikers. If we’d lost both Haaland and Alvarez at the same time we would have been fucked.

We need another proven striker next season alongside Haaland and Alvarez.