Stuart Maynard has been talking quite a lot about the strength of the Notts County squad. He talks about it almost every time he gives an interview.
We've also talked on here about how football has changed, particularly from the middle 60s when I started taking an interest in Association Football, as it was called then.
Football was an eleven man game then, squads were never mentioned at all. Clubs had a reserve team which played in their own league.
The best player would be picked from the reserve team to be the only substitute during a first team game. If a goalie got injured an outfield player would go in goal.
Reserves have now gone, it has been replaced by the Academy with a B team, of young players.
Now we have a squad of 22 players in league 2. Many managers/coaches pick a team to play a particular match from the whole squad. A manager tries to have available 22 players of equal stature if possible.
That's the way the game seems to be going. Those teams with the strongest squad are usually the successful Clubs.
So the question is, Should all 22 players of a squad be available for a match, eleven on the field & eleven available on the bench instead of up to seven?
Or maybe you feel that seven players on the bench is too many & this number should be reduced, or seven is about right.
But for all said & done, it is a squad game now, or is it?