Needed more players or not?

We finally needed more players to get in the tranfer marker or not?

Looking at all the competitions and number of games and then looking at the squad list on the official site I think the answer is yes, its not that the current players are bad but 8 mids where Ba is one of them and 5 forwards with Willy one of them and Kaka listed as a forward is not my definition of cover for injuries.

If this team truly wants to compete for every championship they could like they claim they do, they need about 10 new players to either add depth to certain positions or replace certain player to make that position stronger. But knowing our management, they are going to continue sticking with our 40 year olds year after yaer until these guys retire. This team is on its way to become a very average team and it has everything to do with the management's refusal on spending money to strength the squad. If they still don't spend big next summer, this team won't be able to even challenge for the domestic and european title any longer.

The truth is that we don't have the same kind of squad we did a few years ago. Whereas a couple of seasons ago we had some truly great squad players, we do not anymore. We have lost Shevchenko, Rui Costa, Stam, Tomasson, etc, without really finding good replacements for any of them.
We still have a superb first eleven, so we are definitely among the favorites for the CL, but we lack the squad depth that is needed to field a real Scudetto challenge. And personally I am sick of coming 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.

We need a creative midfielder who can take free kicks well like Ronaldinho, Riquelme, Van der Vaart... Of those, I don't like Ronaldinho much just because he is too expensive. I like Valencia and Gourcuff so I don't really want Vaart too. Riquelme is my choice. I hope he earn a eu-passport before next year. In case we can't get a new creative midfielder, I hope Gilardino gets his form back and Pato can do well as an OMF.

It is still a bit early. If Ronnie has not been injuried for too long and Pato can play, we would not be worried like now.

Emerson has play for us only a friendly match (started from bench). Gorky has his first match this season as OMC. I have high hope on him, but he did not have many options to pass last match, when Gila and Pippo were too easy to be marked. If both have good form and we have one more creative player like Pirlo or Kaka, things will be solved.

I like Riquelme, too, but he is near 30 now, and played only in Argentina and Spain, it is hard for him to play in Serie A. He is slow and not physicaly strong for a OMC at Serie A. I dont think he can play as a sub for Pirlo.

Its neither too early or too late because my opinion and I am sure some others' is not wholly dependent on the first results but only on the squad list, a very strong core but less after that.
If we are going to talk about age then we should also consider that leaving a 30+ year old on the bench is less risky than than a 20-25 year old, because the 20-25 year old probably needs playing time to develop whereas an experienced veteran can jump right into situations...so here its not really about the age of the squad either.

i think this is the case, i like others have been calling for players for years but this is mainly due to the fact we have lost players like Tomasson, Shevchenko, stam and rui costa and never fully replaced them. More overal squad players than core! but the longer we leave it, we are going to need another revolution!

The core of our team is realy Nesta, pirlo, gattuso and kaka. Oddo i like alot, but should have come like 2 years ago. Kaladze ive never been sure about (is paid 4 mill :S), and Jankulovski is pretty good, but no zambrotta. Then we come to Dida, inzaghi and gilardino.

To be honest i would be happier if we won seria A this year more than champ league, just so that inter wont win it again.

I don't think squad depth is such a big issue (it's what I've said all along). Currently a couple of big injuries and a poor performance and a couple of poor results is starting to cause fear of a repeat of the first half of last season.

However, if you look at the lineup yesterday it really wasn't bad at all, but it performed awfully.

The factors I was disappointed with was our mentality, which seemed to be one of uninterest, our movement as our play was incredibly static and our pace, which was partly due to lack of options (due to lack of movement) and effort.

Overall though, as much as I was left disappointed yesterday, I feel very confident in the squad we have.

Originally Posted by ACMILAN1983

I don't think squad depth is such a big issue (it's what I've said all along). Currently a couple of big injuries and a poor performance and a couple of poor results is starting to cause fear of a repeat of the first half of last season.

However, if you look at the lineup yesterday it really wasn't bad at all, but it performed awfully.

The factors I was disappointed with was our mentality, which seemed to be one of uninterest, our movement as our play was incredibly static and our pace, which was partly due to lack of options (due to lack of movement) and effort.

Overall though, as much as I was left disappointed yesterday, I feel very confident in the squad we have.

When you have a team playing so many games every season, injuries is going to come no matter what. When you have an old squad like this, injuries is going to come no matter what. That is why the team management should have planned for this and signed the players needed to add depth to the squad. Nobody in their right mind would think Nesta, Inzaghi, Ronaldo and Maldini will be able to play through a whole season injury free and for Galliani to even hope for that is idiotic. The squad they put on the field this past weekend is exactly why there should have been more signings. We don't even have anyone who can send out a decent pass from the midfield once Kaka and Pirlo is gone. In terms of our striking force, we are still relaying on a 34 year old player and a guy who hasnt played a good game for like a year and a half. Are they the best guy to handle the job right now? Hell no, but we refused to sign a quality striker to take their place. This team is now relaying 100% on its starting 11 and with over 60 games to play each season, that is a very stupid strategy. And the only reason for that is because the club management is only interested in making money with the team instead of building it to be the best in the world any more. I have pretty much given up on this management. This team is never going to be the most dominating team in the world any more, not with this management in charge.

yeah i completely agree! its weird but inzaghi is only good in cup competitions. In seria A he's useless!

We do miss one striker, as we get our new one in January...

Otherwise we have enough players, we can juse question whether all of them are good enough to be called upon.

Personally I would like to add that I really would have wanted one more offensive midfielder instead of one more defensive one. I don't see us well served with one more defensive which seemingly may mean us being more defensive.

With Serginho may away forever, as for his injuries, we have none who really can come on a game and turn it in the same way as him.

Originally Posted by slifersd

And the only reason for that is because the club management is only interested in making money with the team instead of building it to be the best in the world any more.

If that salary list which came out a few days back is true i somehow understand how we dont get more players. With little depth in a team (that seems to be a problem) we still have the highest salary outcome in serieA! Imagine we would add players like Sneider, Etoo or Ronaldinho?

Originally Posted by the_one_up_above_me

Personally I would like to add that I really would have wanted one more offensive midfielder instead of one more defensive one. I don't see us well served with one more defensive which seemingly may mean us being more defensive.

Me too. We just lack someone that can create with ball. Our midfield stuffed with DMs was many times unwatchable even last year and this year we got Emerson. All of my hopes lie on Gourcuff, he must take the burden and start oranizing things on his own if given a chance like this match.

Originally Posted by slifersd

When you have a team playing so many games every season, injuries is going to come no matter what. When you have an old squad like this, injuries is going to come no matter what. That is why the team management should have planned for this and signed the players needed to add depth to the squad. Nobody in their right mind would think Nesta, Inzaghi, Ronaldo and Maldini will be able to play through a whole season injury free and for Galliani to even hope for that is idiotic. The squad they put on the field this past weekend is exactly why there should have been more signings. We don't even have anyone who can send out a decent pass from the midfield once Kaka and Pirlo is gone. In terms of our striking force, we are still relaying on a 34 year old player and a guy who hasnt played a good game for like a year and a half. Are they the best guy to handle the job right now? Hell no, but we refused to sign a quality striker to take their place. This team is now relaying 100% on its starting 11 and with over 60 games to play each season, that is a very stupid strategy. And the only reason for that is because the club management is only interested in making money with the team instead of building it to be the best in the world any more. I have pretty much given up on this management. This team is never going to be the most dominating team in the world any more, not with this management in charge.

I had a tough time reading through that single block of text, but will respond best I can.

Injuries are an issue every team has, age is only really an issue with Maldini at this point. Ronaldo's been injury prone all his career, but we've taken the gamble to try our luck on him. Inzaghi isn't a first team player, he hasn't been for years and he won't be this year. He is passed his injury issues and as a player that won't be relied on in every game he's not our greatest concern as far as injuries.

Nesta and Ambro are the others that we fear for injuries, but we have Bonera and Emerson as backup, so there's not too much worry there unless you don't trust these guys to perform. However, both seem to be in good shape anyway and Nesta is much less likely to suffer as he isn't in the national setup anymore. We will have a weakened squad if these players are injured, but in the end how big should the squad get?

As for not having players who can't produce a decent pass from midfield without Kaka and Pirlo, did you forget Seedorf, Gourcuff and even Brocchi (remember him for Fio a couple seasons back and you'll know why management have trusted in him) were playing? These are good players, but they underperformed. Seedorf especially was a disappointment as he didn't take charge in place of Kaka, and when he finally did we were unlucky not to score 3-4 goals in the last 20 minutes. We could have brought more attacking talent for midfield, but then forget Gourcuff ever getting his chances, as they're already severly reduced. Like Ronaldo, we're taking a gamble on him.

As Kris quite rightly said, we have signed a new forward too, just that we can't play him until January. I wasn't too pleased that we never signed another forward or kept Oliveira until January, but the management have clearly felt that they can rely on Gila, Pippo and Ronaldo. I already said that despite Gila's performances last season, he did actually manage a strike rate of almost 1 in 2 and Pippo's always been good to get old, despite his age (due to his way of playing this isn't such a significant issue), so the management have fair reasons to trust in these guys.

As for relying on the starting lineup for 60 games of the season, did you miss what we did last season or something? One of the key factors to our success was good use of squad rotation.

I don't personally give a damn about whether you believe in the management or whether you think they're in it for money (if you seriously do then I suggest you read up on football clubs). I don't have any hesitation on the management or our chances of success.

While I think we have a pretty strong squad, its players in key areas that are missing/deficient:

a) Goalie: We need a new keeper....either that, or we continue to drop points when Dida drops the ball.
b) LB/RB: We need one, or both...certainly Cafu and Favalli are no longer good enough for the level we are trying to maintain
c) CM: We need a "Pirlo" replacement...and while the deep lying playmaker is a very difficult position to find good players for, it is essential for our style of play....
d) Striker: Well, Pato is here in Jan, but this should be Pippo´s last season, and with R99 so injury prone, methinks we need another proven player, thus dropping Gila to the bench, where I think he belongs, based on current form.