A couple of seasons ago, I seem to recall Pep saying he had two first class players for every position. Rotating the players didn't seem to have too much effect on the team performance. Now, it seems we are too dependent on one two players and their absence is causing our current below par performance.
Perhaps we are missing the recent departed players more than we realised?
I actually think it's the complete opposite, and that now more than ever we are still able to play at a high level despite missing key players.
OK, perhaps missing Rodri, as well as Kev and Stones was a bit too much, but ultimately we put in a ridiculous 1st half performance against Forest without Kev and Stones.
Rodri was a huge miss in the last 3 games on top of Kev and Stones, but I'm adamant we'd have won all 3 of those games had we had Kev and Stones and were just missing Rodri. Losing all 3 is far too much to not have an impact. Factor in missing Gundogan and Mahrez and all of a sudden half the side from last season hasn't been available for a lot of this season.
It may not be a regular occurrence, but if we manage to get a good run of games without any major injuries, we'll wipe the floor with anyone in our way.
After the international break, hopefully we'll only be without Kev, and I'm confident that a team along the lines of the below is too good to not go on a good run in the next 10 games.
Ederson, Walker, Stones, Dias, Gvardiol, Rodri, Kovacic, Bernardo, Foden, Grealish, Haaland