Strength in Depth Myth

shemnel said:
as i watched the game today i couldnt help thinking back to 2011/12 season (and even the one before) and knowing that the likes of Hart, Kompany, Clichy, Zabba, Ya Ya, Nasri, Silva, De Jong, Milner, Dzeko and Aguero would line up;

as we approach 2016, our best current XI looks very similar in many ways;

is this bcos those players are top quality?

or have we failed to replace and adapt properly?

not that we're doing badly, still competing on 4 fronts!
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We are for now still competing but I think we are at the moment where he club has to decide to stick or twist, can you see Pellegrini getting a reaction out of the players and going on a run towards March? Not really, the club should not be prepared to let what's happening on the pitch to continue just because we might have an agreement with another manager.

We have a good group of players but somewhere along the line things are not happening. We can't do the basics right and we don't want to stand up and compete on the pitch. This rests with the manager and the quickest way to change things before competing on four fronts ends up with competing on none.
 
malg said:
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if i was being argumentative i'd say something similar back to you regarding Ross from Friends, but on this occasion, please accept my deepest apologies.
 
It's always been a myth about our squad. We have a top class 11 but they never play together because one or two of them is always injured.

The recruitment of the squad players hasn't been good enough, how many defenders do we need to buy before we can trust them? We still can't find someone to replace De Jong and Bony just hasn't been good enough.
 
We do have the correct strength in depth now in attacking midfield. The choices of Silva/KDB/Sterling/Navas/Nasri are good enough for any club and can rip anyone up with the right tactics/form. We should look to reproduce that quality in depth in other positions. Our failure to sign high-level central mids has been really disappointing and I've ranted about that in the past. Fernandinho has been great but Yaya's decline should have been foreseen and a long-term replacement should already have been signed. Delph looks like a good squad player though, but we really need outstanding quality in this position. And new full-backs, young and talented (see Alex Sandro's performance vs. us for a perfect example. He did what Kolarov and Clichy do, except with the strengths of both and weaknesses of neither). Luckily if Pep does arrive, I think full-back and central mid will be the first positions he overhauls. He may even try Denayer or Maffeo as backup right-backs.

Edit: Also it doesn't matter how many great players you have if you don't have a gameplan and the right mentality. Today we saw a Stoke side of whom none would get in our team except maybe Bojan in Aguero's absence, outplay us in every respect. Masterminded by the genius known as Mark Hughes!
 
On paper we are in the top 5 squads in Europe. Mentally we are weak as fuck. I think MP should shoulder his portion of the blame but those players out there today should have absolutely shit all over Stoke but half of them are soft as shit and probably didn't like being out there in the cold wind.
 
Kinkladze 1 said:
On paper we are in the top 5 squads in Europe. Mentally we are weak as fuck. I think MP should shoulder his portion of the blame but those players out there today should have absolutely shit all over Stoke but half of them are soft as shit and probably didn't like being out there in the cold wind.
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I agree to a really large extent. Where we suffer is a Vincent replacement. He seems to be the only player who takes responsibility and bollocks people around him so they're scared shitless. He's the manager on the field, without him we lack on field motivation.
By the way I'm old school enough to believe it shouldn't be necessary, for their weekly wage I'd have run through a concrete, let alone brick wall without being told.
 
karen7 said:
You are listening to harry rednapp?

We have the best squad we have ever had,some are new and haven't played together,patience is required
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Balotelli Džeko Tevez Agüero
Iheanacho Bony Agüero

Yaya was one of the best players in the world, now he's not. Kompany wasn't a sick note, now he's is. Zaba was younger and better and fitter, Richards was on fire, Clichy and Kolarov were younger.

Barry may not be as good as Fernandinho but de Jong was light years ahead of Fernando.

We've spent huge amounts of money and we aren't better than we were. We bought a load of supporting cast players to play behind our world class spine of Hart Kompany Yaya Silva and Kun and not added enough world class to take us up to the next level.

Overall our recruitment is seeing us stand still.
 
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5 of todays players in the actual starting team are squad players and should be on the bench, even that doubtful for one or two.. As for todays bench, at half time MP didnt make any changes when needing an attacking force to get two goals back, because he fukin couldnt..
 
We lack on-field leadership.
We have too many players who believe they're excused working.
We have a manager who cannot grasp the concept of 'if you can't win then don't lose'.

In short, success in sport is largely based on dedication and direction, not as Pellegrini and most of his players seem to believe, that just going out and hoping that some off the cuff inspiration might be enough.

I find it incredible and beyond any sane thinking that CFG are so dogmatically stupid in their business thinking that they're prepared to spunk this season down the drain before getting this mess sorted.
 
trevorriley said:
5 of todays players in the actual starting team are squad players and should be on the bench, even that doubtful for one or two.. As for todays bench, at half time MP didnt make any changes when needing an attacking force to get two goals back, because he fukin couldnt..
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They played with no striker so he could have gone three at the back, pushed Kolarov up the left wing and Sterling up higher with Bony/Iheanacho and played Navas as the right wing back.

He did nowt!
 
As soon as we have Kompany and Aguero out for some reason the rest find it hard to cope without them. Have we as a club rectified this nope Tevez left and wasn't replaced and although we've thrown plenty of money at Centre halves they have all be found wanting when Kompany isn't available. Funnily enough all are superb when they partner Vinnie.
 
Gaz1105 said:
Yes we have a big squad but when you break it down, we seriously lack in areas when certain players are missing, Harry Redknapp had it right when he said we look average when Hart, Kompany, Silva & Aguero are missing / not at the races - YES they are 4 world class players and I'm not expecting to have someone of a similar class as back up but the gulf in class between first team 11 and squad players is alarming
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You are talking about our elite players.

No other team in the country has as many world class players as we do. Our problem is that most are injured or have been, and too much pressure rests on those that remain so their form starts to slide.

Toure used to be one of our stars, but he's no longer in that bracket. That's part of the problem as well. He has been a big part of our success in recent seasons, and his game has fallen off a cliff edge so much so that I am now relieved if he is not in the team
 
Our strength in depth is non existent because the back up players don't have even vaguely similar characteristics or capabilities to the first choice players.

If Aguero isn't fit, Bony plays. Bony Is the polar opposite to Aguero. So do we alter our style to suit him? Nope. And that's the same for practically the full squad.

So that means when certain players are missing, we miss them more than we should.

We seem to have bought a squad of players to cover every different style of football, yet persevere with the exact same style week in week out regardless of the personnel available.

If you have a philosophy, you stick to it and you buy players who fit in to it, so when you have injuries, you can still play your game with less of an impact.
 
it's a myth and has been for a long time

money wasted and key positions not backed up where it was glaringly obvious for so long

for this club to be so reliant on on a small number of key players after all that money and all this time is quite frankly shocking
 
Balti said:
it's a myth and has been for a long time

money wasted and key positions not backed up where it was glaringly obvious for so long

for this club to be so reliant on on a small number of key players after all that money and all this time is quite frankly shocking
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This is it all over. We neither have a big squad or a squad of immediate replacements, despite what commentators say. We all know this. We have a spine of a team, the same spine since 2010. I think we have become stuck between supplementing that team, or replacing it. We have failed at both, de Bruyne aside
 
City_Sean said:
We have a great squad. If we're lacking in one area it's CM, but when you're decimated with injuries, it's hard as you're unable to rotate.
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Sorry mate, I think we have more weaknesses than that. If Joe were to get injured, how many would say OK, we have Willy to step in so no worries there. Even though I like Bony, he isn't for us (our style does not suit him), Rightback is an area of concern, Leftback ditto. Yaya / Nasri are no longer dependable.
 
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