This what happens when you spend so much money on players on the basis of primarily one season, they are given ridiculous amounts of leeway that isnt afforded to rival teams.
Sterling / KDB /Mangala / Otamendi..Thats a ridiculous amount of money spent on players that have had 1, maybe 2, individually stand out seasons. The credibility isn't there where we can dismiss a bad run of form as just that. Is it a bad run of form or is it their actual level? This is what happens when you sign these sort of one season players. We watched Youtube clips of Otamendi shutting down Messi and Ronaldo but there were no clips of him getting caught woefully out of position or clumsily fouling and kicking out at players beyond the halfway line because he got a nose bleed.