Again, I’m not going to disagree with your post. We have the odd game where we show what the sum of our parts are capable of. Unfortunately those games tend to be sandwiched between a few games of dross. From my armchair manager position we look like a pretty easy team to set up against and aside from Bruno we don’t have many keys to unlock teams that sit deep.
This has been happening for some time now and I see no progress in how we deal with it.
So yes, I think we’ve got the best squad we’ve had since 2012 / 13 (maybe even before) but we’re not making the most of it, not progressing and for me, this is on Ole.
The question for me though is 'how does another manager get more out of this team?'.
We may get the new manager bounce, but over time the same problems remain. No real right winger in the squad. A natural tendency from our players to attack down the left. A striker unsuited for defensive sides. A star midfielder who we could really use in the team, but he switches off and makes mistakes (Pogba).
We are still an imperfect squad of players, but far less flawed than we were when Ole was hired IMO. It just goes to show how bad things were that we have solved a lot of problems and yet many still remain.
These are issues that mostly cannot be coached into, or out of, these players. Recruitment is the solution, and I have great trust in Ole to make the right decisions there.
Now to be fair most other teams could point to deficiencies in their squads and use those as excuses. Im not trying to do that. Im doing that to point out why we don't yet play as well as Liverpool and City have been doing. They had far fewer issues, and yet as an example City haven't been close to the same side since Kompany left, and even a coach as brilliant as Pep cannot solve that on the training pitch. They have to find a replacement for him.
Ultimately Ole still has to deliver something. Thats the pressure of the job. I think its unrealistic to expect free flowing consistent football every week. He managed to navigate this imperfect squad to a 3rd place finish last season, and he'll need to do similar again. If he does, he gets another summer to solve another couple of those problems and make us a better team.