Manchester City are a fantastic team in the EPL, there’s no question about that.
They have plenty of talent and a very strong side. There’s just something missing when it comes to Europe.
Let us first look at the squad depth that Man City have. They have 22 players who are eligible for first-team selection.
That’s two teams without substitutes. However, in all you have seven subs, which means 18 of the 22 are always on the field or bench for a City game.
This means the same players always play, which not only means they have a higher chance of injury, players who don’t play regularly have less of a chance to play because the regular players have played so much that they have a lot more experience, and for that reason they keep on playing.
It’s a self-fulfilling selection tactic, the more games they play, the more experience they get, the more experience they get, the more games they play.
Let’s now look at the age of the players. The average age of the team that was knocked out of the Champions League this year was 30, which is bad enough.
The fact that the youngest player was Sergio Aguero at 26 should cause concern for any city fan for the next few years. You need good youth to succeed and Man City don’t have that.
Surely the money coming in would be enough for a good youth academy?
In conclusion Man City’s European problems are caused by a lack of young players and indeed, not enough experienced players outside the starting 11.
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