I kind of disagree, Pep threw a team out who had never played together and had hardly any match fitness, his one last big favour to his favourite players was to give them the day off, his one last present to us the fans was an insult.
You can’t judge any of the players who Pep has said I don’t trust for most of the season to expect them to coalesce like magic. In fairness I thought most did ok until Villa stepped up a gear but that line up was never going to respond when they did.
I may be salty but I cannot accept that line up yesterday, it gave the media a good stick to beat us with and change the narrative to Arsenal won the title comfortably in the end, which they absolutely didn’t.
You have almost counterd what you are saying .....
Pep didnt trust some of them for a reason....they aint good enough....
As i said to someone else..that game just reaffirmed what some fans hve been saying for a while...some of this squad aint good enough...nothing to do with that one game...it was just more evidence of what we already knew - remember Villa also didnt have a full strength team out and had been on the piss for two days before they played.
We have a decent core of players....but the squad lacks depth of quality beyond a starting 11 and I think there are improvements you can make even to the strongest starting 11 we could put out with everyone that is left and fit.
We have just lost the critical part in Pep however.....without him that squad at present and with bernardo leaving (Stones didnt really figure for two seasons) aint anywhere near good enough...not by a long way....there are at least 2-3 players that should never ever step foot on the pitch again in Reijnders, Rico Lewis and Sav. then there are questions around another one or two in Dias and Marmoush (especially as he just doesnt fit anywhere in the team if Haaland plays).....and unanswered issues around RAN (forward going he is decent - defensively a liability) and Nunes - can the next manager get the same out of him at fullback??
The he huge question of Rodri- anyone who watches him can see he is not the player he was prior to injury.....yes still one of the best but the downturn has started....just like with KDB it was there but others refused to acknowledge it
Im comfortable with all of this....I think we will be in the top 4 challenging....but the drop off is considerable....Pep was the key and now we need better players as any other manager aint going to be able to do what he did - think about it...he never ever had a proper left back after about the first 18 months for very long....any other manager turning Delph, Zinchenko, NOR into title winning left backs - no they aint.....
The new manager whoever he is, aint going to be able to polish some of these players who are not good enough - even Pep struggled in the last two years but this year somehow did it