I agree . Pep would have got a better tune out of your players So it's just your manager that lacks the football intelligence then ?
Just for perspective Pep created a record breaking team in his second season and we have had several refits since, with just the two seasons in his first eight when he didn't win the PL . The treble team was not the only fantastic team in that sequence .. Now we are into the second season of a near compete stripdown and already competing for all domestic trophies .
Your manager won a single FA Cup over a similar period and has deliberately swapped brains for brawn in an attempt to get things over the line , having considered that teams have worked out how to counter a possession based game . So it's Set Piece FC. Your players are not allowed to have an original idea in their heads , so if they do have any football intelligence it's not visible in the way you play . Without your two corner/ free kick takers , who can deliver a ball exactly where it's needed, you'd be struggling . That's not intelligence it's inate , like TAA whom Salah and Liverpool relied on so heavily but who looked like a lost child on a seaside pier whenever he wandered into midfield.