Curious to know who has a bigger squad than us
United maybe? Think that shows how having a full squad of 25 doesn't mean anything, just end up filling the squad with crap
Madrid? But they've let loads of deadwood leave in Bale, Isco, Marcelo etc.
Eddie/Steffan/Carson - Perfect
Dias/Stones/Laporte/Ake - Happy happy joy joy
Walker/Cancelo/Cucurella - so much talent, and that's without considering Zinchenko who may not leave or Ake who has filled in there
Rodri/Phillips - Smashing
KDB/Bernardo/Gundo - Again, quality over quantity, are we going to spend another £60mil for a backup players....no (also what avenue is there for youth like McAtee if we dont)
Foden/Grealish/Mahrez - Quality again, and that's assuming we sell BOTH Sterling and Jesus and bring in NO-ONE
Haaland/Alvarez - wow!!
This obsession with 25 squad players doesn't make any sense to me, would you want to buy someone like Sarr for £30mil for the wings with Palmer on the books?
Should we buy James Ward-Prowse as 4th choice?
What abut the loan army, shall we get a 3rd choice RB when Couto, Kabore or the EDS guys
As per whoscored, looking at players who played more than 450 minutes (5 starts) in their respective elegies
Us - 18 players
Madrid - 18 players
United- 18 players
Liverpool - 19 players
Spurs - 20 (Inc Ali who left) players
Arsenal - 20 players
Chelsea - 21 players
West Ham - 17 (they had Europa commitments too)
PSG - 22 players
Do we really need a full squad of 25 senior players when it's likely that 5 to 7 of then aren't going barely feature?
Even if you consider us selling Jesus Sterling and Zinchenko (with Philllips & Cucurella joining) we still have 17 QUALITY players for 10 outfield positions, and then you have Palmer, McAtee, Lavia, Delap, Kayky, Egan-Riley etc. from the EDS or Rosa, Herrera, Kabore, stevanovic, Couto from the loan army
If we “only” have 17 senior outfield players, we will have to give away the league cup and fa cup. 2-3 injuries at the same time and youre already reliant on EDS players for rotation when we’re playing every 3 days. Thats less than this year and we were thin.
The EDS players probably are good enough but relying on them at the start of the season isn’t right for a club with ambitions of winning everything.
2 for every position should be the aim.
FB: Walker, Cancelo, NEW, Zinchenko
CB: Dias, Stones, Laporte, Ake
DM: Rodri, NEW
AM: KDB, Bernardo, Gundo, Foden
Wing: Mahrez, Grealish, Sterling, Palmer
ST: Haaland, Alvarez
Plenty of scope for rotation and injuries.
If Sterling leaves we need a replacement
If Bernardo leaves we need a replacement
If Zin leaves we could probably cope but a shame
The direct comparison youve given is Liverpool. Will believe your numbers of 18/19, but players they had that had less than 5 starts that could have been relied on in a crisis:
Gomez; Minamino; Elliot; Origi
Not world beaters, but definite first team squad players and took cup minutes from first choice to give them a rest.
We had only EDS players. No first team squad players had less than 5 starts.
So really they had a first team squad of 24 (2 per position) and we had 18. They got to latter stages of every comp we didnt.
WE MUST INCREASE OUR SQUAD SIZE IF WE ARE TO COMPETE FOR EVERY TROPHY LIKE WE USED TO