Quote from: cande86 on Today at 12:41:11 PM

Quote from: retreat on Today at 07:33:16 AM

Quote from: imamusma on July 13, 2025, 09:10:02 PM

It's true, many great players come from Africa, but no national team has the depth of their squad, with talented players in every position. I think that's why African countries often fail at the World Cup, especially when they reach the knockout stage. According to the FIFA rankings, Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, Algeria, and Nigeria are currently among the top five African national teams. As we know, these teams boast star players from elite European clubs, but one or two star players aren't enough to lead a team to the World Cup trophy. Morocco journey in the last World Cup was, in my opinion, impressive.
https://inside.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men

Squad depth is indeed an important factor for a national team to compete well in the world cup. Because if a national team has only a few star players, then what happens is that when the player is injured, the team does not have a replacement and it will have a significant impact on the team's performance. Having squad depth also allows the national team to divide their playing proportion, make good rotations, and tactics that can be adjusted to the players. And because of this, the European national teams can compete better, because they not only have squad depth, but also mature tactics and game systems as well as a supportive football infrastructure from the grassroots to the highest level.

There must be rotation and it is fundamental, if teams can only count on one attacker then in the end they will no longer be able to do anything if that player gets injured.
It works like this for everyone, but then it's also difficult to find a second who is strong and always ready to step in when needed, so you have to be very careful with the initial selection.

But this all depends on the "luck" that some nations have more than others. If you take Norway as an example, imagine that Haaland would get injured. They would never be able to replace him. Now I know he is an exceptional player and other nations couldn't replace a player of his level, but you can see that the best teams have more than one world class striker. That's why you are right, squad depth is very relevant, but sometimes it is nothing that the teams themselves can do a lot about. They either have those strikers available because they have a golden generation or they don't.

Spain is well set up often times because they have so many versatile players. If they lose one player due to injury, they are able to switch their system and have an offensive midfielder play as a striker or fill that gap otherwise. That is what made them so strong at so many international tournaments.