It’s never gone away.
We had four 32+ year olds who couldn’t do the job Pep required, they were past it really. All four were better defenders and passers than what we have now though.
We signed Walker who has really lacks concentration, is rash and can’t cross... but is a very good athlete and that’s what we were lacking with Zaba and Sagna.
We signed Mendy who is suspect defensively and is very erratic with passing in our own half... but is very dangerous on the attack and gets a lot of assists and that’s what we were lacking with Clichy and Kolarov.
We signed Danilo who I actually think is a better football player than Walker at right back (when he plays left back he plays like when you hold a mirror in one hand in front of you and look at that while it focuses on the hair line on your neck in the mirror behind you, he loses all his co-ordination).
While we upgraded in certain ways, none of them are ideal. None are good at each of the defendive side, attacking side and good athletes all together.
When Mendy is out we’ve played an attacking mid, a defensive mid and a right back who can’t play left back, at left back. Why do we have no left back cover at the whole club? When our back up ‘keeper got injured we called back one that was on loan because you can’t just have one ‘keeper. Similarly, at left back, you cannot have just one. You cannot just have one of any position. It’s alright when everyone else is at it, you get away with it, but when they aren’t it’s highlighted as a problem.