Given that we deserved to win the game against Spurs by a mile and would have if we had gotten just 1 of the 2 penalties we were due.
Where do people think we'd be if Laporte didn't get injured against Brighton, only 4 games in? Better yet, imagine if Liverpool had lost VVD 4 games in until now, where would they be? How well would Klopp have coped with the same amount of injuries?
The very next game we lost to Norwich because neither Stones and Ota were in great form and hadn't played together in ages, as I remember it. There's no way we would have lost that game without our defence being destabalised, the drop in assurance at the back spread across the pitch.
Stones got injured 3 days later training in the Ukraine for our first CL of the season. Then City had to play Fernandinho as CB for the next few weeks and it appeared as if we might just get through it.
That was until KDB suffered a groin injury against Everton, City win unconvincingly against Zagreb with a midfield of Silva and Gundogan ahead of Rodri. The same two start against Wolves, which I said before the game is not the midfield I would start against a high intensity midfield like theirs. Wolves were good but all their goals, and all but 1 of their opportunities created if I remember right, all came from City errors. Some were forced with good pressing, some were unforced, Walker, Otamendi, Gundogan, even Silva I seem to remember. Not the worst team to lose to but they weren't even in that good form and had played on Thursday away in Europe. Even with KDB injured, that might have been a good game for the first Fernandinho and Rodri midfield. People are foolish to gloss over how much of a difference something as simple as the team selection can make. We simply haven't had as many options the naysayers think we've had.
The way Laporte's injury has affected the team reminds me of how big a Kompany injury used to be to the team, it has had even more of a knock on effect because there have been other injuries, all in defence and DM, limiting our options even further.
I'm not sure how much can be blamed on Pep, it's not often a team has this kind of luck. Equally it's not often a team gets the kind of luck Liverpool have been having the past two and half seasons and counting either.
I just hope Laporte's return has the immediate effect we need it to have and he comes back to his best quickly.