Well I think it would be hard to bring in top notch quality players to warm the bench. A lot of them would simply kick up a fuss if they weren't playing week in, week out.
I firmly believe Chelsea have the strongest squad. Sure, they have lemons like all teams do, but they have the least, and can at least field a midfield that can be relied on to play semi-well.
Chelsea simply do not, have you watched them AT ALL this year. Even before the ridiculous run of poor games, they've had midfield injuries and are at least 8 points off where they were last season at the same point, thats pretty awful, and yet a worse criticism of the rest of the league, 8 points worse off, they should NOT be second.
Zirkov, Ramires, Kalou, Ferreira should simply not be at the club, Malouda when he's bad is completely worthless, he got a VERY lucky run last year, got most of his goals in lucky dominating games against weak teams again this year, the ball goes through him FAR to much at the moment and he fluffs up so many passes, he's not in the same league as someone like Pires, Nani, Ronaldo, Messi, he's magnitudes worse than those guys, and in all bout 20 games in, is it 4 years at Chelsea, he's been abysmal. Defensively they have Cole, Terry, Alex(when fit) Ivanovic, Bosingwa, with utterly no depth beyond them at all, even Arsenal have good fullback reserves and some quality 3rd choice CB's. Chelsea after Essien, Mikel, Lampard, don't have a single reliable quality midfielder or winger, they have two strikers and Sturridge who I think looks quite decent but 90% of top four teams have 3-4 proper strikers and THEN a couple of potential up and comers. Chelsea have the weakest and smallest "first team" squad of any top side in any top league to be honest.
Which is shocking with what they've spent, this is largely because Mourinho bought sooo much rubbish who left after a year, and Abramovich, quite fairly, got fed up with 100's of mils of players walking out the door a year later and took control off Mourinho.
The first 11 when fully fit, are formidible, Essien, marlaria-less Drogba is insanely good, Lampard is the most reliable player in the league full stop and has been for 7-8 years now, Terry's a git, but a HUGE influence and presence in that side, Cole may be a ****, but the worlds best left back. Beyond the first 11 though, theres very very very slim pickings.
Arsenal midfield who I'd actually want to play, Arshavin, Fabregas, Wilshire, Nasri, Eboue, Rosicky, RVP and Bendtner can play there pretty well on the wing, Gibbs, Lansbury, JET, then guys who play and can perform against most of the league, Diaby, Song, Denilson.
Chelsea's midfield is Essien, Lampard, Mikel, and if generous Malouda and Kalou, with what one youngster whose VERY young and very slight and not there yet, and no one else worth a damn, that isn't even close to "strong".
Possibly the good players that are now about being spread too thinly over various teams? Or the shifted focus to youth development maybe? Bigger sense of entitlement to 1st team football amongst any player with half a clue?
yes, I was going to add but didn't, guys like N'zogbia really are very good and he's been waiting for a top 4 club to pick him up for 4-5 years, frankly, 5-6 years ago any of the top four would have got him years ago, and he'd be in and out of the starting line up as a rotation but good enough player. Theres been quite a spreading out of the quality players, but then, theres sooo many it really shouldn't have been hard to pick these guys up. I mean, Arsenal could have sold Diaby/Denilson years ago and bought N'zogbia. I don't think its unwillingness to spend, its more the unwillingness of the top teams to release underperforming players.
Managers that have been there too long, Wenger who rather than as starting with Arsenal, had a good squad, was critical, removed some rubbish and bought some quality players, now he's got players he bought in at 13-17, has trained them for years and years and is less "new manager in to turn club around" and more "father figure who can't be as critical as he needs to be of his youngsters".
Ok, lots of smaller teams have a couple very decent players each, but the old top four would chuck out their rubbish players and go steal all the good players, thats pretty much what made them the top 4 to start with. Transfer fee's for those types of players aren't expensive, and wages long term far outweigh the transfer fee's, and we're wasting those wages on rubbish players, so its not saving any money. I do think a new manager at Arsenal and Utd would be more critical of the players he had, and be FAR more willing to sell the rubbish players than Fergie/Wenger is.
So you think one less body in midfield when we were getting absolutely battered in those areas wouldn't have made a difference.
Like I said Shami, don't bother any more
Just because you're being beaten in midfield, doesn't mean you'll get beaten worse with one less player, thats just not how life works. Firstly, you don't HAVE to play in central midfield, thats entirely a choice, put on fast wingers and good fullbacks, pass around their winger and get right at their defence, you don't have to pass it in and around central midfield if you don't want. This is ignoring the fact that, 4 great midfielders will do a MUCH better job than 5 crap midfielders performing badly, its not and has NEVER been a numbers game, its ALWAYS been a quality game. Utd lost in midfield on QUALITY, not numbers, removing a badly performing player and putting on a better performing player will almost always improve the squad.
Having an extra player upfront makes the job eleventy billion percent harder for the defence, this tends to drag a central midfield player further back to keep and eye on things anyway. Playing to the other teams strength doesn't help you, it hurts you, West Ham were brilliant with Spector driving through central midfield, you can put 15 more players there to combat it, or choose to not play there, the first option costs your performance everywhere else on the pitch, the certain cuts their star performer out of the game, which would you choose?
