Why is this relevant to our discussion? I know you are trying to stretch it out away from the original discussion but it's debatable and irrelevant. Remember the original discussion below, stick with that:
Again it's irrelevant. It doesn't support the original discussion. What I watch was a beautiful game both teams going to attack each other. It wasn't just one side sit deep and defend while the other one is attacking. You don't agree, then I don't give a feck because it's irrelevant to our original discussion.
I didn't ditch them, you don't read.
When Conte lost Mourinho defensive midfielder and top scorer Matic & Costa as well as he had ageing Cahill, he finished from title winner to outside top 4. That should tell you enough what happened when the quality of the squad is reduced. This is the same case what happened to Ole last season, he lost Valencia, Sanchez, Lukaku, Herrera, Smalling, Fellaini the 17/18 squad because some were past it (ageing) and some forced themselves to leave despite manager wanted them to stay.