The Squad Depth Myth

[Citizen in Pakistan]

One creative midfielder
one central midfielder
Two centeral defenders
One striker
One rb
If we can add that to our squad then we can talk abt the best squad in the league and and top 5 in Europe perhalps
Sell dzeko
Garcia
lescott
Ricards,I like Richards but his injury record gets worse n worse

 

[NoahCity]

One creative midfielder
one central midfielder
Two centeral defenders
One striker
One rb
If we can add that to our squad then we can talk abt the best squad in the league and and top 5 in Europe perhalps
Sell dzeko
Garcia
lescott
Ricards,I like Richards but his injury record gets worse n worse

we don't need another striker and we probably need just one more CB (hopefully a good one).

 

[Mr. Aguia]

Mentioned this in another thread. You can't have a squad of 22 world class players: you won't find 11 world class players that will settle for being back-ups or 22 that will accept constant rotation... You have to get by with having some back-up players who are simply good (to very good). Like many things in life it is about balance.

The OP referred specifically to midfield and in that area, Arsenal's back-ups are probably closer in quality to their first choice midfield than ours are to one another. However, our first choice midfield is, IMO, easily the best in the league. Exeter Blue has been making the point recently that in some squads, Arsenal being the prime example, the composition the squads is more seamless. I think is probably true that Arsenal can interchange their midfield without much variation in style and quality than we can. Pellegrini will need time to evolve his squad to one that is completely designed to play his way. I doubt that Manny would sanction the purchase of another James Milner; just as I doubt that Wenger would be bidding for Jimmy if we transfer listed him. Jimmy might, IMO, be the most overrated player, by a big chunk of our supporters, in City's squad but he is still a very useful player.

I could waffle on but the family have decided my rather excellent French toast is required.

Bayern Munich: 17
Manuel Neuer
Dante
David Alaba
Jerome Boateng
Philipp Lahm
Thomas Müller
Toni Kroos
Mario Mandzukic
Rafinha
Franck Ribéry
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Arjen Robben
Mario Götze
Daniel van Buyten
Javi Martínez
Thiago Alcantara
Xherdan Shaqiri

Real Madrid: 18
Diego Lopez
Iker Casillas
Cristiano Ronaldo
Karim Benzema
Sergio Ramos
Isco
Pepe
Luka Modric
Ángel Di María
Sami Khedira
Álvaro Arbeloa
Marcelo
Gareth Bale
Asier Illarramendi
Xabi Alonso
Fábio Coentrão
Raphael Varane
Jese

Barcelona: 16
Victor Valdés
Cesc Fábregas
Gerard Piqué
Andrés Iniesta
Sergio Busquets
Alexis Sánchez
Neymar
Xavi
Adriano
Dani Alves
Pedro
Javier Mascherano
Alex Song
Jordi Alba
Carles Puyol
Cristian Tello

City: 14
Joe Hart
Yaya Touré
Fernandinho
Pablo Zabaleta
Samir Nasri
Sergio Agüero
Álvaro Negredo
Aleksandar Kolarov
David Silva
Vincent Kompany
Jesús Navas
Edin Dzeko
James Milner
Stevan Jovetic

 

[Citizen in Pakistan]

One creative midfielder
one central midfielder
Two centeral defenders
One striker
One rb
If we can add that to our squad then we can talk abt the best squad in the league and and top 5 in Europe perhalps
Sell dzeko
Garcia
lescott
Ricards,I like Richards but his injury record gets worse n worse

we don't need another striker and we probably need just one more CB (hopefully a good one).[/
quote]

I meant as dzekos replacement

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

I wish someone would tell the media and the pundits to stop pedalling the myth that we have the best squad deoth in the premier league. This is our second choice midfield:

Navas Garcia Rodwell Milner

Compare this to chelsea:

schurle mikel mata luiz de bruyne

arsenal:

Gnabry rosicky arteta cazorla

tottenham:

lamela capoue sandro holtby towsend

Apart from navas our midfield back ups don't come close

Fair point

Navas is mustard and Milner is good. Rodwell is never fit and we might have to cut our losses with him come the end of the season. Signing another quality central midfielder would make things look very different for our backups though I think. Garcia is just so obviously out of his depth and we're relying on him far too often.

 

[Chippy_boy]

Mentioned this in another thread. You can't have a squad of 22 world class players: you won't find 11 world class players that will settle for being back-ups or 22 that will accept constant rotation... You have to get by with having some back-up players who are simply good (to very good). Like many things in life it is about balance.

The OP referred specifically to midfield and in that area, Arsenal's back-ups are probably closer in quality to their first choice midfield than ours are to one another. However, our first choice midfield is, IMO, easily the best in the league. Exeter Blue has been making the point recently that in some squads, Arsenal being the prime example, the composition the squads is more seamless. I think is probably true that Arsenal can interchange their midfield without much variation in style and quality than we can. Pellegrini will need time to evolve his squad to one that is completely designed to play his way. I doubt that Manny would sanction the purchase of another James Milner; just as I doubt that Wenger would be bidding for Jimmy if we transfer listed him. Jimmy might, IMO, be the most overrated player, by a big chunk of our supporters, in City's squad but he is still a very useful player.

I could waffle on but the family have decided my rather excellent French toast is required.

Bayern Munich: 17
Manuel Neuer
Dante
David Alaba
Jerome Boateng
Philipp Lahm
Thomas Müller
Toni Kroos
Mario Mandzukic
Rafinha
Franck Ribéry
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Arjen Robben
Mario Götze
Daniel van Buyten
Javi Martínez
Thiago Alcantara
Xherdan Shaqiri

Real Madrid: 18
Diego Lopez
Iker Casillas
Cristiano Ronaldo
Karim Benzema
Sergio Ramos
Isco
Pepe
Luka Modric
Ángel Di María
Sami Khedira
Álvaro Arbeloa
Marcelo
Gareth Bale
Asier Illarramendi
Xabi Alonso
Fábio Coentrão
Raphael Varane
Jese

Barcelona: 16
Victor Valdés
Cesc Fábregas
Gerard Piqué
Andrés Iniesta
Sergio Busquets
Alexis Sánchez
Neymar
Xavi
Adriano
Dani Alves
Pedro
Javier Mascherano
Alex Song
Jordi Alba
Carles Puyol
Cristian Tello

City: 14
Joe Hart
Yaya Touré
Fernandinho
Pablo Zabaleta
Samir Nasri
Sergio Agüero
Álvaro Negredo
Aleksandar Kolarov
David Silva
Vincent Kompany
Jesús Navas
Edin Dzeko
James Milner
Stevan Jovetic

You are having a laugh.

 

[Jimfv1]

Mentioned this in another thread. You can't have a squad of 22 world class players: you won't find 11 world class players that will settle for being back-ups or 22 that will accept constant rotation... You have to get by with having some back-up players who are simply good (to very good). Like many things in life it is about balance.

The OP referred specifically to midfield and in that area, Arsenal's back-ups are probably closer in quality to their first choice midfield than ours are to one another. However, our first choice midfield is, IMO, easily the best in the league. Exeter Blue has been making the point recently that in some squads, Arsenal being the prime example, the composition the squads is more seamless. I think is probably true that Arsenal can interchange their midfield without much variation in style and quality than we can. Pellegrini will need time to evolve his squad to one that is completely designed to play his way. I doubt that Manny would sanction the purchase of another James Milner; just as I doubt that Wenger would be bidding for Jimmy if we transfer listed him. Jimmy might, IMO, be the most overrated player, by a big chunk of our supporters, in City's squad but he is still a very useful player.

I could waffle on but the family have decided my rather excellent French toast is required.

Bayern Munich: 17
Manuel Neuer
Dante
David Alaba
Jerome Boateng
Philipp Lahm
Thomas Müller
Toni Kroos
Mario Mandzukic
Rafinha
Franck Ribéry
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Arjen Robben
Mario Götze
Daniel van Buyten
Javi Martínez
Thiago Alcantara
Xherdan Shaqiri

Real Madrid: 18
Diego Lopez
Iker Casillas
Cristiano Ronaldo
Karim Benzema
Sergio Ramos
Isco
Pepe
Luka Modric
Ángel Di María
Sami Khedira
Álvaro Arbeloa
Marcelo
Gareth Bale
Asier Illarramendi
Xabi Alonso
Fábio Coentrão
Raphael Varane
Jese

Barcelona: 16
Victor Valdés
Cesc Fábregas
Gerard Piqué
Andrés Iniesta
Sergio Busquets
Alexis Sánchez
Neymar
Xavi
Adriano
Dani Alves
Pedro
Javier Mascherano
Alex Song
Jordi Alba
Carles Puyol
Cristian Tello

City: 14
Joe Hart
Yaya Touré
Fernandinho
Pablo Zabaleta
Samir Nasri
Sergio Agüero
Álvaro Negredo
Aleksandar Kolarov
David Silva
Vincent Kompany
Jesús Navas
Edin Dzeko
James Milner
Stevan Jovetic

You are having a laugh.

I think the jury's still out on Jovetic too until we see him back to match fitness and see him play, you can add Micah to the list too, he was better than Zaba when we won the title, and in the current team he would be great if back to full fitness and if he regained his form. Nastasic and Clichy should be there if Kolarov is also included. We do have a good 14-17 players but some have been missing most of the season, and a few would argue whether Dzeko is playing to his potential in our team. I don't think he is despite him scoring the odd goal.

The comment above about having 22 world class players is true, but if we sign them on the way up then we don't have a problem. Vincent, Zaba, Navas, Negredo and Fernandinho would probably only be squad players at one of the big three European sides, certainly were unnoticed by most of the big European sides until we signed them. Even Aguero and Silva were players with potential not the finished article. If we could sign three or four more players in the next couple of windows who have a similar impact to those listed then we would possibly have the strongest squad in the league and maybe rival Bayern for squad depth. We would also have to offload a couple from our squad who don't contribute enough or aren't improving, but that is Txiki's job, and hopefully he can sign a couple of defensive players. I'm not sure what his record in spotting defenders is like, but hopefully we can sign one's more suited to defending than the ones who Barca had. The Spanish game is different to the English game in that regard.

 

[aguero93:20]

Bayern Munich: 17
Manuel Neuer
Dante
David Alaba
Jerome Boateng
Philipp Lahm
Thomas Müller
Toni Kroos
Mario Mandzukic
Rafinha
Franck Ribéry
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Arjen Robben
Mario Götze
Daniel van Buyten
Javi Martínez
Thiago Alcantara
Xherdan Shaqiri

Real Madrid: 18
Diego Lopez
Iker Casillas
Cristiano Ronaldo
Karim Benzema
Sergio Ramos
Isco
Pepe
Luka Modric
Ángel Di María
Sami Khedira
Álvaro Arbeloa
Marcelo
Gareth Bale
Asier Illarramendi
Xabi Alonso
Fábio Coentrão
Raphael Varane
Jese

Barcelona: 16
Victor Valdés
Cesc Fábregas
Gerard Piqué
Andrés Iniesta
Sergio Busquets
Alexis Sánchez
Neymar
Xavi
Adriano
Dani Alves
Pedro
Javier Mascherano
Alex Song
Jordi Alba
Carles Puyol
Cristian Tello

City: 14
Joe Hart
Yaya Touré
Fernandinho
Pablo Zabaleta
Samir Nasri
Sergio Agüero
Álvaro Negredo
Aleksandar Kolarov
David Silva
Vincent Kompany
Jesús Navas
Edin Dzeko
James Milner
Stevan Jovetic

You are having a laugh.

I think the jury's still out on Jovetic too until we see him back to match fitness and see him play, you can add Micah to the list too, he was better than Zaba when we won the title, and in the current team he would be great if back to full fitness and if he regained his form. Nastasic and Clichy should be there if Kolarov is also included. We do have a good 14-17 players but some have been missing most of the season, and a few would argue whether Dzeko is playing to his potential in our team. I don't think he is despite him scoring the odd goal.

The comment above about having 22 world class players is true, but if we sign them on the way up then we don't have a problem. Vincent, Zaba, Navas, Negredo and Fernandinho would probably only be squad players at one of the big three European sides, certainly were unnoticed by most of the big European sides until we signed them. Even Aguero and Silva were players with potential not the finished article. If we could sign three or four more players in the next couple of windows who have a similar impact to those listed then we would possibly have the strongest squad in the league and maybe rival Bayern for squad depth. We would also have to offload a couple from our squad who don't contribute enough or aren't improving, but that is Txiki's job, and hopefully he can sign a couple of defensive players. I'm not sure what his record in spotting defenders is like, but hopefully we can sign one's more suited to defending than the ones who Barca had. The Spanish game is different to the English game in that regard.

imo txiki is well able to sign/spot defenders, barca were fine in that regard until a few years ago when Maxwell etc were allowed to leave and no replacements signed and the anti-soriano/txiki smear campaign had already been begun by rosell at that stage so wouldn't blame txiki.

 

[Jimfv1]

I think the jury's still out on Jovetic too until we see him back to match fitness and see him play, you can add Micah to the list too, he was better than Zaba when we won the title, and in the current team he would be great if back to full fitness and if he regained his form. Nastasic and Clichy should be there if Kolarov is also included. We do have a good 14-17 players but some have been missing most of the season, and a few would argue whether Dzeko is playing to his potential in our team. I don't think he is despite him scoring the odd goal.

The comment above about having 22 world class players is true, but if we sign them on the way up then we don't have a problem. Vincent, Zaba, Navas, Negredo and Fernandinho would probably only be squad players at one of the big three European sides, certainly were unnoticed by most of the big European sides until we signed them. Even Aguero and Silva were players with potential not the finished article. If we could sign three or four more players in the next couple of windows who have a similar impact to those listed then we would possibly have the strongest squad in the league and maybe rival Bayern for squad depth. We would also have to offload a couple from our squad who don't contribute enough or aren't improving, but that is Txiki's job, and hopefully he can sign a couple of defensive players. I'm not sure what his record in spotting defenders is like, but hopefully we can sign one's more suited to defending than the ones who Barca had. The Spanish game is different to the English game in that regard.

imo txiki is well able to sign/spot defenders, barca were fine in that regard until a few years ago when Maxwell etc were allowed to leave and no replacements signed and the anti-soriano/txiki smear campaign had already been begun by rosell at that stage so wouldn't blame txiki.

Can you tell me which defensive players were bought by Barca when Txiki was there, I'm not on the windup, I'm just curious to see how successful he was in signing defenders. I have always thought both Real Madrid and Barca have looked suspect at the back, but you have to get the ball of them to expose this weakness. I always thought Ramos and Puyol respectively came through there youth squads. I realise Madrid signed Pepe and Barca signed Marquez years ago, but which other top class defensive players have Barca signed in the last ten years ?

 

[aguero93:20]

I think the jury's still out on Jovetic too until we see him back to match fitness and see him play, you can add Micah to the list too, he was better than Zaba when we won the title, and in the current team he would be great if back to full fitness and if he regained his form. Nastasic and Clichy should be there if Kolarov is also included. We do have a good 14-17 players but some have been missing most of the season, and a few would argue whether Dzeko is playing to his potential in our team. I don't think he is despite him scoring the odd goal.

The comment above about having 22 world class players is true, but if we sign them on the way up then we don't have a problem. Vincent, Zaba, Navas, Negredo and Fernandinho would probably only be squad players at one of the big three European sides, certainly were unnoticed by most of the big European sides until we signed them. Even Aguero and Silva were players with potential not the finished article. If we could sign three or four more players in the next couple of windows who have a similar impact to those listed then we would possibly have the strongest squad in the league and maybe rival Bayern for squad depth. We would also have to offload a couple from our squad who don't contribute enough or aren't improving, but that is Txiki's job, and hopefully he can sign a couple of defensive players. I'm not sure what his record in spotting defenders is like, but hopefully we can sign one's more suited to defending than the ones who Barca had. The Spanish game is different to the English game in that regard.

imo txiki is well able to sign/spot defenders, barca were fine in that regard until a few years ago when Maxwell etc were allowed to leave and no replacements signed and the anti-soriano/txiki smear campaign had already been begun by rosell at that stage so wouldn't blame txiki.

Can you tell me which defensive players were bought by Barca when Txiki was there, I'm not on the windup, I'm just curious to see how successful he was in signing defenders. I have always thought both Real Madrid and Barca have looked suspect at the back, but you have to get the ball of them to expose this weakness. I always thought Ramos and Puyol respectively came through there youth squads. I realise Madrid signed Pepe and Barca signed Marquez years ago, but which other top class defensive players have Barca signed in the last ten years ?

real signed Ramos from sevilla IIRC, ok from memory here: promoted puyol, resigned pique (we'll suited to their system if not pl) alves Adriano abidal Maxwell Marquez thuram and probably a fair few I've forgotten, all quality defenders.