The Squad Depth Myth

[tolmie's hairdoo]

I don't think our quality reaches down lower than the first 14 or 15 players of this current squad make up.

The most obvious thing for me is that Pellegrini and City are trying to establish a style of play from the youngsters right through to the first team.

But the team is unrecognisable in general play when the manager does attempt to utilise and rotate.

The quality of our starting eleven is such that is just exposes above average or below average players.

Not their fault, a result of a poor spending policy from previous years and the evolution taking place.

 

[Wiekens]

Think we need to strenghen in the midfield and up front and 1 defender in the summer for me lescott garcia rodwell dzeko and jovetic need replacing and we have to make pogba 1 of them replacements.

I agree with the sentiment of this. I do think Rodwell and Jovetic could offer something in the long term so I'd keep them. But Garcia and Dzeko are both dross in my opinion, so suddenly you're looking at having only two good, fit CMs and only two good, fit CFs. So once one of those is injured, like aguero is now, we look a bit stretched for quality in those positions.

I also think vinny needs a better centre back partner. I like nastasic but he's a bit young and could do with putting on a bit of muscle, dimichelis is a decent experienced back up for Vinnie and as much as I like lescott his inability to trap and pass a ball means that he can't quite hack it at the top level.

So if I was txiki begiristain I'd be looking to offload Lescott, Garcia and Dzeko whilst signing 3 replacements for them plus I'd sign another creative midfielder to take a bit of pressure off nasri and silva and let them have a break every so often. That's just my two penneth!

 

[TonyBookEnd]

I think the first team squad needs to be smaller but with the quality and versatility improving. After our 4-5 main players there's too a big drop off in quality. We have a lot of steady players bloating the squad which is stifling the development of our academy players.

 

[Rammy Blue]

I don't think our quality reaches down lower than the first 14 or 15 players of this current squad make up.

The most obvious thing for me is that Pellegrini and City are trying to establish a style of play from the youngsters right through to the first team.

But the team is unrecognisable in general play when the manager does attempt to utilise and rotate.

The quality of our starting eleven is such that is just exposes above average or below average players.

Not their fault, a result of a poor spending policy from previous years and the evolution taking place.

It's incredible though that through all the squad investment we have made over the last 3 or 4 years we are still a good 6/7 players short from having a good enough squad.

I suppose it shows that buying sicknotes doesn't help.

 

[Aytoun]

Going back to early season we had several setbacks not least with team selection away from home. Most people were disappointed but took the view that MP was new & was probably looking at what he had inherited.
However we are now in January & he is STILL using players who would barely cut it at Championship level, as was proven yesterday.
We all know about injuries, hectic schedule etc. but several of those playing on a regular basis should realistically be in our " 3rd " team, because they are not good enough fundamentally, but still the old deadheads keep trotting out & playing exactly the same useless way they performed last time.
Of course you cannot win every game & some by a long way, but we are now back to pleading for the ref to blow for time as in Liverpool, Fulham, Swansea & Blackburn. We cannot even defend a lead & not because of our holistic attitude, but lack of ability.
The stated objective of this club is to win all 4 competitions this year & the strength of our squad is put forward as a major reason it will happen.
As this post says this is a myth.

 

[Rammyblues]

It seems with having purchased two for every position maybe on the grounds that only one player would be injured or suspended always leaving the second player available through rotation etc to cover we have been found out this season especially in defence. Seeing defence is going to be the area I suspect in the summer whereby wholesale changes are made it will be interesting to see whether they are specific to their positions or whether all who are signed can play across the whole back four.

 

[Lucky Toma]

When you see three or four changes made you expect to witness slightly inferior performances from slightly inferior players. You also expect and accept possession to be slightly disjointed and positioning to be awry at times (the latter due to individuals concentrating on what positioning is expected of them rather than having the confidence to improvise).
When those incoming include Garcia at the hub you additionally expect the pace of our play to dip from the norm.

But what concerns me is this....

Pellers has successfully incorporated Mancini's patterns of play into his more attacking philosophy. You know the patterns I refer to - the triangles in and around the box as we squeeze the play. The constant and patient probing that comes from this.

It is a template and therefore not - in theory - reliant on any individual. Its just that some - Yaya and Silva predominantly - will implement that template better than others.

Those on the periphery of the first team practise this template day in, day out and should be completely au fait with it.

So why is it that when we make sweeping changes - instead of their being an acceptable dip in application of it for the reasons I stated at the beginning - this template is NOT FUCKING DONE AT ALL?!!!

Instead we get the minimum of pressing and the most ABC passing imaginable...if we're lucky.

It literally makes no sense to me and I cannot figure out the reason.

Its got nothing to do with Boyata or Lescott's failings, or even Garcia's snail-like pace. And its got little to do with our quality dropping as a consequence of playing lesser players. We simply dont play the same way when our peripheral players are drafted in.

Yesterday we only played our usual template for the last twenty mins - or at least until Boyata saw red - and its no coincidence that was when Navas and Yaya came on.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

I don't think our quality reaches down lower than the first 14 or 15 players of this current squad make up.

The most obvious thing for me is that Pellegrini and City are trying to establish a style of play from the youngsters right through to the first team.

But the team is unrecognisable in general play when the manager does attempt to utilise and rotate.

The quality of our starting eleven is such that is just exposes above average or below average players.

Not their fault, a result of a poor spending policy from previous years and the evolution taking place.

It's incredible though that through all the squad investment we have made over the last 3 or 4 years we are still a good 6/7 players short from having a good enough squad.

I suppose it shows that buying sicknotes doesn't help.

I agree, but it's the ending of a five-year cycle and the starting of a new one.

I fear we are going to run out of steam and luck if we continue to rely on players who come in and can't pick up the slack.

Rodwell, Garcia, Sinclair, Jovetic - that's £55m right there, which is just scary.

I don't see what we lose trying to recruit this window? If nothing else, we get upgrades and they are bang on it for the start of next season.

Chelsea's first eleven is a couple of yards down on us but their deeper squad quality is far superior for me.

 

[Rammy Blue]

When you see three or four changes made you expect to witness slightly inferior performances from slightly inferior players. You also expect and accept possession to be slightly disjointed and positioning to be awry at times (the latter due to individuals concentrating on what positioning is expected of them rather than having the confidence to improvise).
When those incoming include Garcia at the hub you additionally expect the pace of our play to dip from the norm.

But what concerns me is this....

Pellers has successfully incorporated Mancini's patterns of play into his more attacking philosophy. You know the patterns I refer to - the triangles in and around the box as we squeeze the play. The constant and patient probing that comes from this.

It is a template and therefore not - in theory - reliant on any individual. Its just that some - Yaya and Silva predominantly - will implement that template better than others.

Those on the periphery of the first team practise this template day in, day out and should be completely au fait with it.

So why is it that when we make sweeping changes - instead of their being an acceptable dip in application of it for the reasons I stated at the beginning - this template is NOT FUCKING DONE AT ALL?!!!

Instead we get the minimum of pressing and the most ABC passing imaginable...if we're lucky.

It literally makes no sense to me and I cannot figure out the reason.

Its got nothing to do with Boyata or Lescott's failings, or even Garcia's snail-like pace. And its got little to do with our quality dropping as a consequence of playing lesser players. We simply dont play the same way when our peripheral players are drafted in.

Yesterday we only played our usual template for the last twenty mins - or at least until Boyata saw red - and its no coincidence that was when Navas and Yaya came on.

We weren't playing a high line at the back and with Garcia in the team it was effectively a 5 man defence with 2 up front. Therefore only 3 players were playing between those 2 lines with a huge gap between them which made it impossible to press and play decent one touch football.

 

[Brendan110_0]

Never heard as much bollocks as this thread. We have a great squad depth, just have a few injuries to key players. BTW I thought Blackburn played as well as they possibly can, it was a fair result as I don't think City played badly either. We're never going to win every game but I expect us to win vs Blackburn at home.