I fully understand why we are written off before a ball is kicked at the start of each year. Until we've shown we can last the distance everyone is right to be sceptical of us. However, obviously as a biased fan, we look to take some positives out the season before, to give us hope for the season ahead. And despite it being seen as a disaster there are things we can cling on to in the hope it helps us going forward.
We had an almighty collapse during the season, but actually ended up with one of our best points totals in the past decade. So there is obviously scope to improve on it further. Because of the turmoil, and the perceived shambles of a season, people forget that it was a 1 point gap to 4th place.
Obviously our form with the formation change gives something to work on for the new season as well. We of course don't know how it will work long term if we choose to play it, but I feel it does hide some of our weaknesses that we often get criticised for. The extra centre back adds a bit of physicality we lack, (Kolosanic will also help with that). The extra body at the back also helped cover for the weakness in centre midfield, and it looked as if Xhaka and Ramsey were forming a promising partnership as they could concentrate individually on what they are good at.
I think like most other clubs,if we keep our best players and add quality to the ones we have, we have just as much right to be optimistic as anyone else about next season. I go into it with my eyes fully open though, more in hope than expectation until proven otherwise.