One good thing about a perceived lack of squad depth is that it gives the youngsters the chance to shine (or more accurately, to develop into fully fledged Premiership standard footballers) when a few first teamers are injured. I think it's often all too easy to moan about a lack of squad depth and overlook a supposedly limited youngster as a backup option, forgetting that sometimes an average youngster doing nothing noteworthy in the reserves can turn into a good player if put into the right team at the right time for a long enough period. Carroll (post relegation exodus + nil spending during the summer of 2009), Krul (departure of Given + lengthy injury to Harper), N'Zogbia (ousting of Robert + no replacement), S.Taylor (injuries to first team fullbacks + centrebacks iirc) are prime examples of players developing at a very fast rate primarily due to being thrown in at the deep end, as opposed to developing slowly and only being used regularly once they were "ready".