How do you have quality on the bench?

As a title challenging side it seems that you certainly need a strong squad to sustain a title bid throughout the season.

Sooner or later, your key players or in-form players pick up injuries which sometimes, keep them out for the rest of the season. How do you replace them?

For example, when Fernando is injured, who do we have to come off the bench and grasp that strikers position with both hands. Or when Mascherano and Lucas are BOTH injured, who takes that position and gives Rafa a tricky decision to make in picking the team when the injured party(ies) are fit again.

Season after season i hear that Chelsea will win the title because they have the strongest squad in depth, and that we won't win it because we don't have a deep squad.

So how do you do it?

I recall Crouch left because he didn't want to be a bit part player, he wanted to be a key fixture in the team and not play second fiddle to Torres. Is he the type of quality you need as back-up or is he too good a player to do that job?

Is it simply the fact that Chelsea's players see the ££££ going into their bank account every week and think, ahh okay, i suppose that bench could be a bit warmer? We can't afford to pay quality to sit there without being a major fixture in the side?

Is it really all down to money?

Good thread and good post. It's as much about motivation as it is anything else. Keeping players happy, or paying them too much to moan about sitting on the bench, which is what chelsea do. We've struggled with motivation a lot this season I think. I think we'll bounce back, but if the first team players aren't 100% happy, then someone sat on the bench must feel even worse watching runs of bad results. Unfortunately we don't have the money to buy a  decent bench.

I just feel we can't have players of decent qualities wanting to sit on the bench.

Take Crouch for example. I really liked him but he didn't want to be back up to Torres.

So if let's say, we get Silva and Joe Cole, keeping our money the same. We'd probably have the likes of Kuyt/Maxi/Benayoun on the bench. Good quality but would they be willing to sit there or be like Crouch?

Yeah, it's a tricky task to keep the bench regulars motivated.

I think too many footballers have too big an ego so they find themselves thinking they're too good to sit on the bench. But surely that's one of the advantages of being a club like Liverpool FC. You should see players queueing up to audition for places in our team and being happy to sit on the bench until they're given the chance to impress.

If you find quality young players who have come through the youth team i think that's the solution. I know if I or any of my mates who support Liverpool had any sort of chance to break into the squad, (hypothetically if we'd been scouted and we're in the Youth team), we'd be more than happy to sit on the bench to a job for the club we love. A combination of talent and love for the club would be the ultimate solution but that's not easy to find.

I think the key in terms of depth (whether or not we are in the money) is to be producing more youth players cabable of stepping up to the mark, because as you rightly say, players of a certain standard will only play second-fiddle for so long (for instance, Benayoun in the 09 Jan transfer window was all set for a move to Russia because he wasn't playing before Rafa convinced him to stay) - so hopefully the mass influx of players from abroad, as well as the tweaks Rafa has made to the set-up will address this problem in years to come
(It's a myth anyway that Chelsea have an infinitely superior squad to everyone else [even forgetting that fact that most of them are 30+])

First thing to do is to make the club an attractive destination for top players around the world so that even if they are not able to get into the first-team for sometime,they should be ready to bide their time and fight fo their place but they would only be willing to do so if they believe they can be part of something special if they stayed at the club.Also getting players who are either in the initial stages of their carreer or are around 30 but can still do a decent job should be a priority too.

No matter how much you pay them, top class footballers will want to play. It's the managers job to deal with the players needs. It requires great man management to keep bench regulars happy.

That and the occasional squad rotation.

Don't forget, we do have a big amount signing on the bench, too. Aquilani.
Agree with the posts here, we can't financially afford to have top-quality players on the bench. Plus, no top class player would just like to warm the bench, they all want to play.
So, I think the bench is meant more for back-ups like Riera and Babel.
One main backup we need is a striker. When Torres is injured, Ngog is there, but he can't perform upfront all alone.

I think the only way we can keep a quality bench is to have a young quality bench and a few players that will come and go on the fringes of the team.
We can't afford to pay superstar wages to people who will sit on the bench. Rotation will help but we have to keep the squad cost down

On a sell to buy policy i don't see us ever having better than average back up as these said players are sold to fund other transfers.

New owners who actually have a pot to piss in would help