Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini says his squad lacks depth, despite the Italian spending lavishly on players since his arrival in 2009.
Mancini has recently been vocal about what he believes is a player shortage at the Premier League leaders, with strikers Mario Balotelli and Eden Dzeko both injured, while Yaya and Kolo Toure will be missing throughout January due to African Nations Cup duty with Ivory Coast.
Despite Gareth Barry returning from suspension in time for their up-coming Carling Cup clash with Liverpool, Mancini will also be without influential centre-back Vincent Kompany, who has received a four-match ban following his dismissal in the FA Cup defeat to Manchester United.
''All the people think we have a lot of players,'' said Mancini. ''But we have 19, plus 'keepers. It is not a big squad."
''If we are unlucky and we have three or four players injured, like at this moment, we can have a problem. The club knows this."
''I said four weeks ago that December and January would be crucial months. Until three weeks ago we didn't have any injuries. Now, we have a problem. We have players injured and others who went to the African Nations Cup at a crucial moment."
''I am not happy about this but we can't do anything about it. If we don't get the players back we will play with the young players. If we don't have a central defender we will play with [Karim] Rekik."