Complacency and far too loyal.
Loyalty is a great trait but it can also come back to haunt you as we have seen this season.
Elite clubs/winning clubs keep winning by been ruthless and make tough and seemingly callous decisions on players/coaches.
Players come and go, some leave as legends but most go and are soon forgotten, that's the nature of sport. Sadly now we have far too many of our fan base that seem to support players more than the club, I find that strange.
With a fully fit squad & Rodri as a 6, we'd still be a force to be reckoned with imo, BUT there's no stopping the hands of ole Father Time. As our players age, injuries are easier to come by & harder to heal quickly from, & because of Pep's preference for a smaller squad, the perfect storm has ravaged us.
I think this goes beyond loyalty. I agree with you 100% that it's the complacency that this perfect storm would never hit us, which has led to the dire situation we find ourselves. We're heading toward a summer where
TWELVE members of our squad will be 30+. We can't be relying on them to play 60+ games per season, at the highest echelon of football, 3 times per week. It's impossible to do this at the zenith of football, at that age. It's just the harsh reality of biology & physics.
We also need to act decisively with Jack, Nunes & McAtee. Jack's effectively become a £100m paperweight, Nunes was never up to the recent historical standards of Manchester City's squads & has done nothing to dispense that notion, & McAtee should either be given a fair chance to prove himself, or sold with a buy back clause & sell on fee.
Major surgery is needed at the Etihad & we need to be brutally honest with ourselves. It's pointless hanging on to the older players we have, hoping they can overcome the realities of age, just as much as it's pointless hanging on to players who're taking up a squad place, but rarely played when they're not up to the elite standards we've set.