Balancing squad evolution

I'm not really sure the best way to phrase this question but I will do my best.

I am aware that new players brought into a squad will generally take time to settle and that it takes time for new players to fit in with their new team. But is there a 'tipping point' at which too many new players will severely affect the form and play of your team? And are there modifiers which can help negate the effects of new arrivals?

A little background:

I normally try to bring in 2 or 3 players maximum into my first team to minimise the disruption I mentioned above.

However, in my current save I had 5 players retire at the end of the season, plus another couple who were obviously getting way past their best. This coincided with the Board giving me a much larger than expected transfer budget to spend.

The upshot is that while I retain a core of players that did well the previous season, a good percentage of the team is new and my early season form is appalling, despite playing a formation that was doing well at the end of the previous season.

My team has evolved thus:

GK: Lewis --> Robinson (new)

LB: Jordan --> Jordan

DC: Rocha --> Dealbert (new)

DC: Bennett --> Bennett

RB: Dibon --> Dibon

CM: Norris --> Delph (new)

CM: Brown --> Brown

AML: Sinclair --> Sinclair

AMC: Berget --> Sigurdsson (new)

AMR: Lawrence --> Albrighton (new)

STR: Mouche --> Mouche

The subs bench also includes another 2 new faces.

Is that too many new players all at once? Would the cohesion be any different if I didn't play many of the new signings straight away and kept them on the bench?

Common sense suggests that there is an obvious answer to this (Yes, you've brought in too many players you fool!), but given how FM sometimes doesn't work how you might think it would, I thought I would ask this question to you fine forum-goers.

While having new players in your first team forces the team to re-adjust I don't think the effect is that big, I think it's just one of the many many aspect that the A.I take account to when running a match. I honestly don't think the difference in term of match play will be that big. I think the biggest part, and I'm not sure at all about this, is that everytime I bring in new players the tactic familiarity will get reduced depending on how many new players coming... again I can't confirm this yet

I don't think there's a clear answer to your question. Variables in the new players could cause problems of their own.

For example you bring in a Mexican, a South African, and a Japanese - all of whom have low professionalism; or a Brit and two central Europeans, all of whom have high professionalism and generally good personalities. It's easy to see how both sets of players will gel into your squad, or not.

The best advice I could give is to check your squad gelling and morale (via your assistant) at any time you need to perform surgery on the personnel, and that'll give you an idea as to how far you can go.

One player could be enough to unsettle the team.

Conversely, I've brought in 4 new first teamers in my current season and they've all hit the ground running.