What we're seeing now are the fruits of a systematic degrading of the club that started under Benitez; the gradual eroding of a team with three-four genuinely top class players, with a decent supporting act that, given the right backing and the right infrastructure, could have been an almost guaranteed top four finisher.
We started selling to buy, with all the politics. Benitez went a little crazy. We then brought in an average manager; then a better manager but with no decent infrastructure and about three-four short term strategies in a row. Then a potentially good but inexperienced manager, surrounded by inexperience, who wasn't very good at picking players and got caught up in a battle with the other people picking players to the point where everyone forgot what they were supposed to be doing - building a squad and building a team.
And here we are. Arguably our two best players - currently injured - are Sturridge, who can't stay fit, but when fit is very good, and Coutinho, who is inconsistent and can only really shine when alongside certain other types of player. Beneath that, a smattering of decent footballers but no-one who can dominate the opposition. Essentially we've got a mix of a supporting act (Henderson, Firmino, Milner, Flanagan, Clyne with maybe one or two others), with a few average players (Moreno, Sakho and maybe one or two more), a few players that flit between average and half decent (Hi Benteke), two top class players who can't be relied on, and a number of kids.
The trouble is we're looking at what should be a supporting act to be top class and our average players to be a decent supporting act. Compare us with Arsenal, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea or Tottenham - on paper - and they each have two-three (at least) top class players who can be relied on, every week (unless Mourinho was in charge). And even then, they're not all doing as well as they should be, on paper.
Leicester, on the other hand, have a clear system, fewer games, disciplined players, and shit hot strikers.
I hated watching last night's game but realistically we're a mid table side in terms of players. It's silly to expect more. If we were in the top four we'd have to be ahead of Arsenal, Man City or Tottenham and we're nowhere near as good as them.
We have a great manager though, which is a reason to be hopeful.
