While I totally understand and share many of the frustrations and disappointments this season especially on the back of liverpool seemingly going unchallenged to the league title I felt i would rather come at this from a different angle. Maybe its the perspective that this year has given me on the back of the pandemic and what's gone on around the world but I don't think this team is in need of this huge overhaul that many seem to be suggesting neither do I think the likes of mahrez, gundogan, jesus are either not good enough or past it. with the first two particularly being 29, they've certainly got a couple more good seasons at the top level ahead of them and will still have a huge role to play.
But to get the bigger point though, this is a group of players whom for the most part have performed to a level way beyond anything previously seen for the past couple of seasons. With a level of consistency, intensity and concentration required that is almost unparalleled in this league. 198 points in 2 seasons is no mean feat and this is without the luxury of only being focused on one trophy as a result of being knocked out early or not being in a title race so their standards had to remain ridiculously high for a good part of it while challenging for all possible trophies. The centurion season will always go down in history and as has been shown this season reaching that record wont be easy. Ederson's addition was a revelation and completely transformed the way the team played, Otamendi played like the player that won defender of the year for valencia that season and was imperious, Walker was the perfect rb for the high defensive line and the perfect cover for any sort of counter, delph slotted into that lb role and did exactly what was needed from him and that's before getting into the forward side of fern, silva, de bruyne, sane, sterling and aguero who all seemed to be playing as one. This was a team that was playing football not seen in the league prior and pretty much blew all other teams away.
But as incredible as they and that season was, I'd argue last season was the even more impressive feat. In fact its imo guradiolas most impressive season since his first one at barca. Make no mistake that liverpool team that year is one of the best sides the prem has ever seen at least in a single season and I feel were even better than this current one. They also seemed to have everything going their way that season with some of the worst goalkeeping blunders you'll see in the last seconds of games. Everything looked to be pointing to it being the year for them. This was all on top of a city team that had de bruyne missing for pretty much the whole of the season, sane running out of favour for the second half of it, fernandinho missing crucial games due to injuries during that same period, d.silva not being anywhere near what he was the season prior, and mahrez not yet being the signing everyone thought he'd be. For that 14 game winning run to the title where each game was a must win high-pressure one, a team consisting a defence with zinchencko at lb and gundogan sitting in front managed to concede just 4 goals in that period. That was the catalyst for which they managed to win 5 of those 14 games by a single goal. And while they were always still the dominant team in those games, there was an added steel and determination that was unheard of during that run when you consider how close of a race it was. Barring a last minute var decision I have no doubt they would've added the champions league to the 3 domestic ones.
So on the back of 2 seasons like that where 5 of the possible 6 domestic trophies had been won(excluding charity shield) with record number of points tallied and a closely fought season where it was won on the last day and the 2nd placed team finished with 97, a sort of drop off would naturally be expected especially if there aren't enough reinforcements and unfortunately that turned out to be the case. When you lose such a big figure like Kompany after the season he just had, it leaves a big hole in the team. Not buying a replacement for him was without doubt the biggest mistake the board/manager made going into the season and I'm guessing it was on the belief that fernandinho could slot in and do a job there while rodri in turn takes his role but that clearly proved to not be the case. Add in the injury of laporte for the whole season and you are left with a team that's pretty much lost the catalyst that drove them to the league title in its final stretch the season prior. It was an uphill battle from then on and despite a lot of claims of the team being not clinical enough I believe that has mainly been the crux of their problem this season. On the other end you have players like sterling who have played damn near every minute and was only bettered by ederson and walker on minutes played for the previous two seasons of such intensity and to add to that no one else has played more than him this current one its no wonder you get a stretch of games where he seemed totally out of it. In fact is a miracle he's even managed to still rack up close to 30 goals this season. That shows not just how good he is or has been but also how important he's been to the club this previous 2 seasons.
I will come to my final point as this post has gotten a bit lengthy but to summarise although it has been a disappointing season so far (champions league win could change that) and I share many of the frustrations especially with the lack of a quality replacement for Kompany going into the season. I am more looking at it in the context of what the team has achieved the previous 2 seasons and how much of a toll that may have taken on some of the key players(sterling, walker), the natural likelihood of a drop off after winning 5 of 6 domestic trophies with 198 points in the league at such a high intensity coupled with injuries to very important players and not replacing kompany, I can somewhat understand why the season have gone the way it has this season when all those are taken into account. Going forward it's clear the main areas needed for reinforcement are a top quality center back which should be main priority, a very good lb, and another attacker/striker. Though unlikely a window with koulibaly, alaba and sancho would be the ideal scenario and imo would be more than enough to take the team back to the previous standards as I still believe the likes of mahrez, gundogan and jesus still have plenty to give and with foden and garcia coming through it should be enough in the squad to compete on all fronts.
