It definitely sting, and I think it stings even more because of how last season ended. The players mentality must be shot to bits. I think in the past 2 seasons we've only been outside the top 4 for about 4 weeks. Sky were constantly showing the infographic during the game about how long each club had been in the top 4 this season, and Leicester were top with about 250 days. Don't think any other club had been in more than 200.
Next steps, we need to replace Vardy as priority one (and Vardy needs to be used more sparingly / off the bench) and priority two has to be a right winger. It's shocking that our best option is still Albrighton. Perez is terrible and Under seems to have been silently shipped off - Rodgers never really rated him.
Other than that, it's difficult to know where else we need cover because of the extent of our injuries. Feels like we need more cover all over the shop. For instance, at full back you'd think Ricardo, Timmy Castagne, James Justin and Luke Thomas would be enough, but apart from Thomas all have been out for significant periods. Similarly at CB, with Morgan gone, we only have Soyuncu, Evans, Fofana (and Amartey, at a push), and all of these have been injured for long spells too.
While there's certainly an element of mental fragility, I think both seasons, it's ultimately been squad depth that has killed us. The problem is it sounds like our wage bill is stretched to it's absolute limit.