This has been a generic issue for a number of years and it has probably been brought up before but I'll do it again.
Player loaning is a huge part of football in Italy and pretty much every professional and semi-professional team loans players for a season. It is very obvious when looking at the squads in the first season. After the first season though, things change dramatically and teams do not loan nearly as many players as the first season which results in, especially with the squads in Seria A, having bloated first team squads consisting of many 19-24 year old players who do not have a chance of getting playing time in Serie A but would most certainly be great players in the lower leagues. These players simply stay at their clubs until their contracts run out without having played a game. What is also interesting is that these players are often listed for loan and teams in the lower leagues show interest but do not come through with it.
In the screenshots here we can see the Atalanta squad after the transfer window has shut in the beginning of the second season. Perfect example of the issue in hand. Several goalkeepers in their early 20s who would be solid keepers in the 2nd or 3rd tier. There was interest shown on some of them but for some reason they didn't make the move. Same issue with players in every position. Young players who are not good enough for Atalanta but would surely be good players in the lower leagues. Interest shown with some of them but no move.
It's the same issue with other Serie A teams where huge number of players simply stay with their clubs without having a chance to play. Obviously this results in the lower league teams some having 1 or 2 players on loan but many teams not having any.
