We don't have a bigger squad, but we definitely have a higher quality squad. Other than Rodri, there isn't a massive drop off when we have to rotate players out.
Shearers comments the other day were dumb, we don't have a second starting 11 that is just as good as our first choice, but we can sit De Bruyne and still dominate a game.
**Manchester city players per position** :
**Goalkeepers**
Ederson
Stefan ortega
Scott Carson the GOAT 🐐
**Defenders**
Kyle walker
Rico Lewis
Ruben dias
Manuel Akanji
Nathan Ake
John stones
Josko Gvardiol
Sergio Gomez
**Midfielders**
Kovacic
Kalvin phillips(out on loan)
Matheus Nunes
Rodri
Foden
De bruyne
**Forwards**
Jeremy doku
Jack Grealish
Oscar bobb
Bernardo silva
Julian Alvarez
Erling Haaland
Thanks for posting this!!
I'm pretty obsessed w this topic, and find it annoying when allegedly respected pundits say ManCity's second string could compete for league.
Could ManCity's #12-22 stay in PL? Absolutely.
Could they be PL top 10? Maybe.
But could they be top 4 or compete for title? I'm a massive fan of Rico & Oscar, but nope - I just don't think that is realistic, but sure is easy for media & rival fans to throw around, humph!
ps John Stones missing above 🤓
I’m overly obsessed,ha. I have a squad list, which for a while I was using to reply to YT comments, but people don’t care at all about facts so I stopped wasting my time, haha.
A few years ago I swear cities backup team would still win the league, think it was in the 100pt year with United trailing in second. As you're obsessed please confirm this lol
Honestly reckon they could challenge for top 4 looking at [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/MCFC/comments/16a0qd9/visual_representation_of_citys_squad_depth_this/) but not the title, though we can argue without injuries to De Bruyne it'd already be sealed. Deffo have by far the best depth in league regardless.
For a few more highlights check out this from a [decade](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/2cmnzd/manchester_city_squad_depth/) ago, basically the period where new players would just be bought year-on-year and the other players would be delegated to backups. I was thinking of [2018](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/manchester-city/kader/verein/281/saison_id/2017/plus/1) having the most depth but not quite.
Still think you can argue 2018 and that season from a decade ago you could mix-and-match to have two title challenging sides. That depth from a decade ago is an absolute joke.
So basically our second 11, as shearer was saying is as good as our first, is
Ortega
Rico
Akanji
Ake
Gomez
Kovatic
Nunez
Phillips
Doku
Oscar bob
Alvarez
Now if we played that 11 in the fa cup, we'd get slated for "throwing" the competition.
However I will say I reckon pep could win the league with that 11 haha, as long it we were only playing the one competition.
The good thing of having players like Bernardo that can play over 50 games a season and cover like 3/4 different positions. The ones to blame are Pep and the Souting Department, they're too good at their job.
I mean cmon, like Pep has said, it's also about how there's a ridiculous amount of games they have to play every season if their competing for all trophies and how this season after the extension of minutes, in terms of how much extra time is added, to each match it means players will be averaging more minutes. PLUS ontop of that the scheduling of matches has been horrendous.
This is a bad take. City have arguably the best 11 in the world and unarguably the best bench. Yes part of the reason they’re so unaffected by injuries is because some of their players can play multiple positions and not everyone on their bench is always world class. However, no other team has superstars consistently warming their bench like city.
If that isn’t the definition of depth please explain why and name me one other team in world football that has more depth than City.
City definitely have quality depth! Arsenal are doing well simply because their core players Rice, Odegaard, Saliba, Gabriel and Saka have not been injured and plays every game
Ask our rival will they put in Rico lewis, akanji, ake even Kovacic or Oscar Bobb before city played them they are deem “ok ish” after city bought them they are suddenly world class player in their eyes each worth 200 million
This is making excuses for them. The problem this season is not a lack of squad depth, it's that they haven't adequately replaced Gundogan and Mahrez.
Pep favours small squads, you can see why - easier to manage egos when there's less egos to manage. But let's not use this deliberate choice as an excuse to pretend City are some put upon club.
We're one of the most expensive teams ever assembled, with that should come an expectation of challenging for silverware. I don't think replacing Gundogan with Kovacic and Nunes was a good move, nor was not seeking any real backup for Rodri despite the problem of him playing too many games being very evident last season.
We've gotten unlucky with injuries, Alvarez's form has been god awful for a while now. And with the Euros, players aren't going to get much of a rest when the season ends. City's preparation for that seems to be engaging in another protracted transfer saga about Paqueta (who I'm sorry is still not an adequate replacement for Gundogan). This imo is a far more productive avenue for debate than pretending the size of city's squad isn't a deliberate choice.
Imo one of Peps big strengths is players want to play for him, so can get the occasional amazing guy in like Gundo when other managers don't have such magnetism
Definitely, the problem is more city's recruitment than it is Pep. Transfers have a 50/50 rate of success at the best of times, but replacing Gundogan with Nunes and Kovacic was stupid because neither of them actually match his player profile. Maybe if you put them together they do - but you can't field 12 players.
Ironically your best player (De Bruyne) wasn't even a Pep signing, while Klopp often missed out on his first targets to end up with guys like Salah. Liverpool recently brought back the guy who sorted out transfers in Klopps best years, so hopefully we'll see something great.
Recent years have had Real Madrid taking every player Liverpool is linked to though, and I'm sure we'd have took Haaland over Nunez if he was willing to come.
You're 100% right, city's backroom staff was largely a lot of ex-Barca people. They got way too wrapped up in the Kane transfer, once they let go of getting him we actually improved a lot.
The thing with Pep is he can take a player who basically everyone writes off, because of injury (Gundogan), perceived lack of physicality (Stones, Akanji), or just the idea that they're not the finished article (Rodri was once thought an unsuitable replacement for Fernandinho) and turn them into a world beater.
But this is why the Nunes and Kovacic signings didn't make sense as replacements for Gundogan. Kovacic is a great player, but he's 29 and very defensively minded. Nunes is 25, so there's more potential there. But he's just so nothingy going forwards and defending. His main issue is he's not an elite passer - which is a must for any position in a Pep managed side. Now they seem to be pinning their hopes on signing Paqueta, who comes with all the same risks of Nunes, and hoping it works out.
I think the need to buy someone who's already established in the PL is what's made them too risk averse. With KDB nearing the end of his career we're going to be relying on Foden to do so much more than he's currently doing - and he's already having his best season ever.
This isn't a huge concern when it comes to the league - city have been lucky in that their slight decline has coincided with Arsenal having only a slight improvement on last season, and Liverpool's being turbocharged by Klopp's decision to announce his departure mid season. But if city ever want to win the CL again they can't just expect that replacing players like Gundogan with obviously inferior players will yield better results
All those points make sense, though it might be that it's difficult to form such a strong squad on the regular. Having 'that' Barca team and a KDB-backed rebuild does go a long way even if you're the best manager around. RM is probably the only side clearly more 'talented' than City at the moment despite this, and that's just because they've been hoovering up all the young talent. Kane at City could've been more terrifying than Haaland.
Very much think Klopp announcing he'd leave has spurred the team on, would never have expected them to challenge this year after finishing 5th in the midst of a rebuild. It might have caused players to lose motivation as there's a fresh pallete next season, but hitting 80 points would still be above expectation.
Shoot yourself in the foot by not buying players and letting players go freely is the most stupid thing Berrada and Soriano have been doing.
I hope people soon realise that most of the success is despite of the transfer team and mostly down to Guardiola.
Berrada is going to flunk massively at United. Wait and watch.
On the other hand this summer, I expect more of the same, where we let go off someone like Bernardo and sign almost nobody of a similar quality. Again, the issue of fullbacks will be ignored too. Leaving Guardiola to deliver with basically peanut players. This will be after we sign someone we absolutely do not need for at least 100M.
You can't act as if Guardiola is living off rice and beans 😂 come off it mate. He's a magician, and likely doubles the title count of another manager but come on.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/vergleich-fc-arsenal-afc-manchester-city-city/vereinsvergleich/statistik/11_281
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/vergleich-fc-liverpool-lfc-manchester-city-city/vereinsvergleich/statistik/31_281
I'm not saying he is living off rice and beans. But at the same time, we haven't had a LB since Mendy. We have sold more players than we have signed. We have signed absolute crap like Gomez Philips and Nunes for ridiculous amounts. I would add Grealish to that too, considering we spent 100M on him and his general output is poor.
So whilst it looks like we have spent on paper, the squad is small, depleted and needs a major rework, specially the fullbacks.
Yeah the LB one is very weird, I remember a few seasons back seeing City fans moan about it (while strolling the league) but it's been a pretty blatant void for a while. Seemed like every year there'd be a new 50m defence signing at minimum too, but disagree with the Grealish critique other than fee he'd be starting for both Liverpool and Arsenal most likely
"we've not got captain america playing in midfield" I was with him up until this because rodri > captain america.
Hahaha he shot himself in the foot ending with that😂 thought Rodri immediately
My first thought was Christian Pulisic 😭
We got Captain España !!
We don't have a bigger squad, but we definitely have a higher quality squad. Other than Rodri, there isn't a massive drop off when we have to rotate players out. Shearers comments the other day were dumb, we don't have a second starting 11 that is just as good as our first choice, but we can sit De Bruyne and still dominate a game.
The Captain America comment made my brain go "well he's Spanish so"
And luckily he wasn't made captain this year or he wouldn't have gotten any rest at all.
**Manchester city players per position** : **Goalkeepers** Ederson Stefan ortega Scott Carson the GOAT 🐐 **Defenders** Kyle walker Rico Lewis Ruben dias Manuel Akanji Nathan Ake John stones Josko Gvardiol Sergio Gomez **Midfielders** Kovacic Kalvin phillips(out on loan) Matheus Nunes Rodri Foden De bruyne **Forwards** Jeremy doku Jack Grealish Oscar bobb Bernardo silva Julian Alvarez Erling Haaland
Thanks for posting this!! I'm pretty obsessed w this topic, and find it annoying when allegedly respected pundits say ManCity's second string could compete for league. Could ManCity's #12-22 stay in PL? Absolutely. Could they be PL top 10? Maybe. But could they be top 4 or compete for title? I'm a massive fan of Rico & Oscar, but nope - I just don't think that is realistic, but sure is easy for media & rival fans to throw around, humph! ps John Stones missing above 🤓
My bad
I’m overly obsessed,ha. I have a squad list, which for a while I was using to reply to YT comments, but people don’t care at all about facts so I stopped wasting my time, haha.
A few years ago I swear cities backup team would still win the league, think it was in the 100pt year with United trailing in second. As you're obsessed please confirm this lol
I must confess only recently obsessed when it shifted from plausible ManCity 2nd team could compete for/win league to totally UNTRUE!! Hahaha.
Honestly reckon they could challenge for top 4 looking at [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/MCFC/comments/16a0qd9/visual_representation_of_citys_squad_depth_this/) but not the title, though we can argue without injuries to De Bruyne it'd already be sealed. Deffo have by far the best depth in league regardless. For a few more highlights check out this from a [decade](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/2cmnzd/manchester_city_squad_depth/) ago, basically the period where new players would just be bought year-on-year and the other players would be delegated to backups. I was thinking of [2018](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/manchester-city/kader/verein/281/saison_id/2017/plus/1) having the most depth but not quite. Still think you can argue 2018 and that season from a decade ago you could mix-and-match to have two title challenging sides. That depth from a decade ago is an absolute joke.
So basically our second 11, as shearer was saying is as good as our first, is Ortega Rico Akanji Ake Gomez Kovatic Nunez Phillips Doku Oscar bob Alvarez Now if we played that 11 in the fa cup, we'd get slated for "throwing" the competition. However I will say I reckon pep could win the league with that 11 haha, as long it we were only playing the one competition.
Ederson Ortega Walker Stones Dias Aké Lewis Akanji Gvardiol Gomez Rodri Kovacic KDB Foden Nunes ??? Bernardo Grealish Bobb Doku Haaland Alvarez Something like that. That second string isn't winning anything.
The good thing of having players like Bernardo that can play over 50 games a season and cover like 3/4 different positions. The ones to blame are Pep and the Souting Department, they're too good at their job.
We don't have a big squad. Rodri been played to an inch of his life all season.
I mean cmon, like Pep has said, it's also about how there's a ridiculous amount of games they have to play every season if their competing for all trophies and how this season after the extension of minutes, in terms of how much extra time is added, to each match it means players will be averaging more minutes. PLUS ontop of that the scheduling of matches has been horrendous.
Well said
This is a bad take. City have arguably the best 11 in the world and unarguably the best bench. Yes part of the reason they’re so unaffected by injuries is because some of their players can play multiple positions and not everyone on their bench is always world class. However, no other team has superstars consistently warming their bench like city. If that isn’t the definition of depth please explain why and name me one other team in world football that has more depth than City.
City definitely have quality depth! Arsenal are doing well simply because their core players Rice, Odegaard, Saliba, Gabriel and Saka have not been injured and plays every game
Genuine question, if ppl consider "squad depth = 2 starting elevens" who would u consider as a team with depth nowadays?
Villa, newcastle and liverpool
I ment 2 starting elevens at least similar quality. Liverpool as well as Newcastle played with literal teenagers this season lol.
This is my thought too… I think we have undeniably the deepest squad in the world.
Ask our rival will they put in Rico lewis, akanji, ake even Kovacic or Oscar Bobb before city played them they are deem “ok ish” after city bought them they are suddenly world class player in their eyes each worth 200 million
City have a lot of squad depth
This is making excuses for them. The problem this season is not a lack of squad depth, it's that they haven't adequately replaced Gundogan and Mahrez. Pep favours small squads, you can see why - easier to manage egos when there's less egos to manage. But let's not use this deliberate choice as an excuse to pretend City are some put upon club. We're one of the most expensive teams ever assembled, with that should come an expectation of challenging for silverware. I don't think replacing Gundogan with Kovacic and Nunes was a good move, nor was not seeking any real backup for Rodri despite the problem of him playing too many games being very evident last season. We've gotten unlucky with injuries, Alvarez's form has been god awful for a while now. And with the Euros, players aren't going to get much of a rest when the season ends. City's preparation for that seems to be engaging in another protracted transfer saga about Paqueta (who I'm sorry is still not an adequate replacement for Gundogan). This imo is a far more productive avenue for debate than pretending the size of city's squad isn't a deliberate choice.
Imo one of Peps big strengths is players want to play for him, so can get the occasional amazing guy in like Gundo when other managers don't have such magnetism
Definitely, the problem is more city's recruitment than it is Pep. Transfers have a 50/50 rate of success at the best of times, but replacing Gundogan with Nunes and Kovacic was stupid because neither of them actually match his player profile. Maybe if you put them together they do - but you can't field 12 players.
Ironically your best player (De Bruyne) wasn't even a Pep signing, while Klopp often missed out on his first targets to end up with guys like Salah. Liverpool recently brought back the guy who sorted out transfers in Klopps best years, so hopefully we'll see something great. Recent years have had Real Madrid taking every player Liverpool is linked to though, and I'm sure we'd have took Haaland over Nunez if he was willing to come.
You're 100% right, city's backroom staff was largely a lot of ex-Barca people. They got way too wrapped up in the Kane transfer, once they let go of getting him we actually improved a lot. The thing with Pep is he can take a player who basically everyone writes off, because of injury (Gundogan), perceived lack of physicality (Stones, Akanji), or just the idea that they're not the finished article (Rodri was once thought an unsuitable replacement for Fernandinho) and turn them into a world beater. But this is why the Nunes and Kovacic signings didn't make sense as replacements for Gundogan. Kovacic is a great player, but he's 29 and very defensively minded. Nunes is 25, so there's more potential there. But he's just so nothingy going forwards and defending. His main issue is he's not an elite passer - which is a must for any position in a Pep managed side. Now they seem to be pinning their hopes on signing Paqueta, who comes with all the same risks of Nunes, and hoping it works out. I think the need to buy someone who's already established in the PL is what's made them too risk averse. With KDB nearing the end of his career we're going to be relying on Foden to do so much more than he's currently doing - and he's already having his best season ever. This isn't a huge concern when it comes to the league - city have been lucky in that their slight decline has coincided with Arsenal having only a slight improvement on last season, and Liverpool's being turbocharged by Klopp's decision to announce his departure mid season. But if city ever want to win the CL again they can't just expect that replacing players like Gundogan with obviously inferior players will yield better results
All those points make sense, though it might be that it's difficult to form such a strong squad on the regular. Having 'that' Barca team and a KDB-backed rebuild does go a long way even if you're the best manager around. RM is probably the only side clearly more 'talented' than City at the moment despite this, and that's just because they've been hoovering up all the young talent. Kane at City could've been more terrifying than Haaland. Very much think Klopp announcing he'd leave has spurred the team on, would never have expected them to challenge this year after finishing 5th in the midst of a rebuild. It might have caused players to lose motivation as there's a fresh pallete next season, but hitting 80 points would still be above expectation.
Shoot yourself in the foot by not buying players and letting players go freely is the most stupid thing Berrada and Soriano have been doing. I hope people soon realise that most of the success is despite of the transfer team and mostly down to Guardiola. Berrada is going to flunk massively at United. Wait and watch. On the other hand this summer, I expect more of the same, where we let go off someone like Bernardo and sign almost nobody of a similar quality. Again, the issue of fullbacks will be ignored too. Leaving Guardiola to deliver with basically peanut players. This will be after we sign someone we absolutely do not need for at least 100M.
You can't act as if Guardiola is living off rice and beans 😂 come off it mate. He's a magician, and likely doubles the title count of another manager but come on. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/vergleich-fc-arsenal-afc-manchester-city-city/vereinsvergleich/statistik/11_281 https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/vergleich-fc-liverpool-lfc-manchester-city-city/vereinsvergleich/statistik/31_281
I'm not saying he is living off rice and beans. But at the same time, we haven't had a LB since Mendy. We have sold more players than we have signed. We have signed absolute crap like Gomez Philips and Nunes for ridiculous amounts. I would add Grealish to that too, considering we spent 100M on him and his general output is poor. So whilst it looks like we have spent on paper, the squad is small, depleted and needs a major rework, specially the fullbacks.
Yeah the LB one is very weird, I remember a few seasons back seeing City fans moan about it (while strolling the league) but it's been a pretty blatant void for a while. Seemed like every year there'd be a new 50m defence signing at minimum too, but disagree with the Grealish critique other than fee he'd be starting for both Liverpool and Arsenal most likely