The point of spunking 60m plus on the likes of Cucurella was to provide cover, but he turned out to be shite and you've been conned. But you won't admit to it for a couple of seasons. Azpi is finished so no use either.
I'm not sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing with me here. If you agree that there is a significant difference between our starting fullbacks (James and Chilwell) compared to Cucurella and Azpilicueta/Chalobah then I can only assume you agree that their absence is significantly hurting our performances as well. The tone made me think that you were disagreeing but perhaps I'm mistaken.
Dogshit forward line. Ziyech isn't good enough, the american guy isn't, Mount flatters to deceive, then the german can barely get a goal.
Fair criticism of our attacking options, especially since they're all out of form at the moment. A lot of our attacking play the past few years has come from overlapping fullbacks, further highlighting the absence of James and Chilwell. At the moment our central midfielders (Jorginho, Kovacic, Zakaria) aren't creative enough, and Cucurella and Azpilicueta aren't as good going forward as the two starters. Makes our attacking stale and predictable. In either case the attacking midfielders have still underperformed and I expect both Pulisic and Ziyech to be undesired after this season.
But yeah it's those injuries which have done it otherwise you'd be challenging for the title.
I don't think it's that crazy. From what I can remember the last time James/Chilwell/Kanté got a consistent run of games (21-22 season) we were top of the table around Christmas, when James and Chilwell got long-term injuries. Hardly a coincidence that our form dropped off a cliff the weeks after.
10+ simultaneous injuries in a season where the fixtures are as dense as they are isn't insignificant. With everyone fit we did win a Champions League without being jammy, so I think not being THAT far from contending for a title is a fair assessment *shrug*.