Rio Ferdinand just said that Manchester City can take any player out of the first 11 and it doesn't weaken the squad. Not quite sure I agree with him, but there are probably 7 or 8 players they can take out and put in replacements and it doesn't affect the likely outcome of most games. Are we now at that stage, that other than 3 or 4 players the rest can be swapped in and out without weakening the team? Have we ever had a squad with such strength in depth where we have more or less 2 quality players in every position? Who is a shoe-in every match for you? Assuming we are still in the Championship next season and have to option to keep all our best players (Dike included if you like), where would we be adding additional quality?
Mowatt’s the only player who’s a big loss in my opinion. If anyone else is injured or suspended then it’s a much smaller drop in quality. The bigger factor would be that if we lost a few then we lack options off the bench. If 2 of our 6 forwards were injured for example you’ve only got one natural replacement on the bench when Val’s changed at least 2 forwards every game (I think).
We certainly have strength in depth in attack. I think we have to also factor in that we can and do take advantage of the 5 subs.
We chop and change our front lads every game but I think we’re only successful in that because we have ever present Mowatt and the 2 Callum’s. I don’t think we’re the same team when styles isn’t at it, and I wouldn’t want to play too many games without Mowatt in the midfield. We can start or finish games without some of our players, definitely, but to not have them available would limit the options we currently thrive on.
Mowatt, Helik, Andersen and Brittain all play 90 mins pretty much every game. Styles not far behind. For a very good reason. Helik, Mowatt and brittain in particular would be very big losses if any of them were to be missing.
We have a number of players who regularly play very well now, but I think that Mowatt is the one individual whose absence from the team would be noticed most. Judging by Valerien Ismael's description of Mowatt as "a special player", I suspect that he shares this opinion.
I think the way we utilise the 5 substitutes gives that impression, but I reckon the reality is we're nowhere near that. I rate Walton as a keeper but we couldn't play the high line we do without Collins. There isn't a replacement for Brittain. Or Mowatt. I thought Jordan Williams was pushing Styles for the left wing back place. Saturday showed he's not. Until the second half on Saturday Kane had offered very little and Palmer was a shoe in to start along side Mowatt. Maybe Kane is now ready, maybe Saturday was a one off. If we started every game with Frieser, Chaplin and Victor because we thought they were going to win us the game and were unable to replace all three on 55 minutes we'd be threatened with relegation. Depending on who we're playing there's a choice to be made between Sibbick and Sol. One for speed, the other for strength and experience. Other than that, the remaining 7 in defence and midfield remain unchanged week in week out, playing two games every week without rest, for very good reason. Halme is good back up, but he's back up. Up front we rotate because we have to. Because the forwards run their blood to water and we're playing 2 games a week every week. In a normal season with only 3 subs you'd see a similar rotation system to the rest of the team, virtually none.
