I'd say for the last decade, even during the 08-09 season, the main thing that has hindered us has been strength in depth. We had one of the best first elevens in Europe that season, yet we had the likes of El Zhar and Voronin coming on from the bench. Even last season, for the first 6 months we didn't have one recognized striker on the bench, let alone a youngster. It is a squad game, not just to rest players but to motivate players to keep a high level of performance. Now, excuse me while I get in to one of them football manager moods. Let's break down the squad. GK: Reina, Mignolet, Jones Defence: Johnson, Agger, Coates, Kelly, Skrtel, Toure, Enrique, Wisdom Midfield: Lucas, Gerrard, Allen, Henderson, Shelvey, Coutinho, Suso Attack: Sturridge, Aspas, Alberto, Suarez, Downing, Borini, Sterling Now for me as it stands, that's a competitive squad, especially upfront, albeit two of them unknown. Anyway, two things scream out loud to me, one of them being the obvious lack in depth at CB. But two, how thin our CM/DM is. In an attacking sense, Henderson, Coutinho and Alberto is a decent trio to fight for a place. But in CM our back-up to Gerrard and Lucas is Allen and Shelvey. That for me needs to be addressed, Lucas and Gerrard have been prone to the odd injury the last couple of seasons, an injury to one of them could badly damage our squad. Of course I haven't taken in to account some of the players leaving (Personally I have a sneaky feeling Suarez will stay), but, as I put above, we definitely need a new CM. Mkhitaryan can play in the midfield but I'd much rather a Dembele type figure in the middle, then you have the foundations of a good squad. Sorry but I didn't realize how much I couldn't be bothered to make a thread untill about half way through Will finish it later. Something to look forward to eh?
Sterling missing? its a squad game and for some time our squad has been weak when faced with injuries to key players certainly,Some of the teams we have had under Rafa have been very good, but the minute we get a key injury it fell apart, look how weak we was when Torres or Gerrard was injured, now days we don't miss Gerrard as much although still vital and we have already proved we can cope without Suarez. although its not brilliant its certainly better than the options from the bench we have had before. shame to say this but would have been very interesting to see what Brendan would have done with the money we wasted on Carroll,Downing etc
well not quite £35 mill or £20 mill , but at least Allen had an excuse by the looks of it playing through injury, and he may come good, but he only cost £15 mill although i will admit didn't make much sense to me buying him, guess time will tell on that one, bit like your user name, he turned out ok.
it would have been more interesting to see what our current scouting system would've come up with if they were there when we had that kind of money to spend
I think depth and competition is more important than quality although there needs to be a balance between the two. Look at the Manchester clubs and their individual players, one has the better players but the other is a team and recently won the league! Its part of the reason I say we should sell players that are injury prone. Why have a top player if they are hardly ever able to play? We'd be better of with the cash to invest in the squad!
Some points I'll make for strength in depth are: how many games have United won because of goals from Henandez after he came from the bench. The same with City and Dzeko. It can often happen where teams have the lead but the other team start to make a let press for it and start taking over. Your players are starting to tired. Ideally you want to bring on an extra midfield hard man. But you need that player on the bench. Strong players in teams getting injured can ruin a team if the replacement does match the strength. A tired player who cannot be rested can slow a team down. Often you see games where it is goalless and the 2 teams just cancel each other out. If you can bring the right player off the bench to change things, mix it up, give you some thing different, shock the opposition, you can pinch the win. If not then its a draw. Andy Carroll in last years FA Cup final. Adam Lalana basically kept Southampton up with goals from the bench. Competition for places in the team keeps players on their toes. They work harder to keep there spot. As a result the team performs better. Plus the competition go for it extra determined when they get their chance. Would we have conceded those late goals around January against Arsenal, City and West brom if we could have brought on that extra muscle and fresh legs in midfield. In games like the goalless merseyside derby we could have done with that some thing different fro the bench to break the opposition defense. In games where we are creating but wasting loads of chances we could have done with a Herndandez or Dzeko. If we didnt have Allen and Gerrard covering Lucas's role for a huge chunk of the early season would we have done much better? Around 2009-10 Torres crumbled under the pressure on him because we just didnt have worthy cover and assistance for him up front. He was stressed, his muscles tired and he got injured.
Yes and no. Your first 11 is what makes you a top team. Your bench is what keeps you there. I don't like hearing "we need more squad players". Real Madrid, Barca, Juventus, Bayern and more don't go out and buy average players to make up the numbers. Yes they have depth but the focus is the first team. I think we need the first team to be on form first before we start bringing in subs and depth players. Otherwise we are no different from a mid table side. Hodgson loved buying squad players and they were useless.
Those teams do do it. Real Madrid bought Owen for example. Barca bought Alex Song. If you just think about the 11 it wont work. The way I look at it is think of it as 22, not 11. you build two teams. Two quality players in every position. What if you have a great 11. You still wont win the league if you dont have at least a fairly decent 22. If you want a league title, a domestic cup and a string European run you need a dream 22.
We still lack top 6 quality at centre back. Really only Agger stands out as good enough. We need a good player brought in to partner him, or Skrtel to find his form again. Midfield is okay... but if Gerrard gets injured long term? Disaster really. He starts so many of our attacks, in a way Lucas, Allen, Hendo can't (yet). Signing Mkhi would give us another strong option if something happened. Wanyama too is a very decisive player. Up top... we look a lot worse if Suarez goes. Sturridge and Coutinho are good enough, but Suarez is our talisman right now. He'd need to be replaced well. Aspas seems like a very astute buy but it's unlikely he could replicate Suarez's influence. We'd have to hope that the three combined manage Suarez's contribution + their own next year. Is that likely? Alberto looks to be an improvement on Jonjo, and I'm feeling better about Fabio now he's coming into some form. Not optimistic today
How about we look at United. They just won the league in style. but they are not bursting with world class talent. But the squad depth is pretty damn good. If I player is injured the team doesnt really look weaker. You dont hear them winging about injuries, except maybe in cb. The other thing they have had for 25 years is a great winning mentality. I actually think our CB's are slightly better than United's.
Yes If you're challenging on multiple fronts then strength in depth is key but quite frankly we are not. Our sole aim at the moment is top 4 and we really need to get a stellar first 11 first, the luxury of depth can come later
United have Vidic, Rio, Smalling, Jones and Evans at cente-back. Come on, we have Agger, Skrtel, Toure and ****ing Coates. Wisdom/Kelly maybe. United are better.
Well I dont rate Phil Jones at all. Vidic is fantastic. I suppose looking it at it comes down to Rio v Skrtel. Rio wins but has developed a lot of fitness issues.
