No, if we should blame anyone, it's those in charge of making sure we have a squad capable of competing. Our first 11 is a good side, but right now we are racked with injuries. Compare the changes Maureen made to the ones Rodgers did. In an effort to change the game we fielded brad smith and aspas and they were the BEST options we had.... Not rocket science is it?
First bit of common sense I’ve read on this forum ‘pigeon, It must be clear to anyone with any sense, where the blame for our threadbare squad lies: full square with those who adopted the silly transfer policy in the first place, i.e. with FSG.
Even if the OP is correct in trying to point the finger away from them, and towards Migs, it’s still their fault for shipping out Renia in order to save on wages, (part and parcel of the silly policy), so either way FSG must shoulder the blame here.
This silly transfer policy has reduced us to signing the likes of Aspas and the other unuseable benchwarmer’s, instead of a decent squad of quality replacement players.
What a contrast we saw between our bench and the strenfgth of the bench's at both City and Chelsea, that comparison is what this silly policy does to a squad.
Will FSG finance the required investment in January? It doesn’t look like it if the transfer speculation in the media (always suspect) is anything to go by, i.e. we’re said to be looking at players in the 7m bracket again! One would think they might’ve learned by now, but have they?
I disagree. It has as much to do with the transfer policy as it has to do with the manager.
Firstly, let's ask ourselves this...Did we really need Aspas? We had Borini who offered as much as Aspas is...Secondly, if we saw Borini was not living up to expectations, why did we not sell him and combine the fee with the 7 mil we paid for Aspas and buy a 17 mil rated young striker along the lines of Morata or Callejon? That was not FSG's choice, that was BR's choice. BR reviews the targets with the scouts. BR tells the scouts "I need 2 strikers and a defender"...perhaps he should have said "I need 1 striker of a higher class who fits within the age and price bracket". He chose that he needed 2. So you cannot blame FSG for that.
Secondly, whilst I agree Reina should not have been shipped out, I am sure BR was consulted, whatever he might say in the press. If he wasn't consulted, then I am disguisted by him and the fact he chose to remain and work under a setup where the manager is not consulted about transfers. Either way, it reflects poorly on BR.
Secondly, we need to ask ourselves this...Did we really lose the game because we had a short bench, or did we simply lose a match away to a Chelsea side that is unbeaten at the bridge under Mourinho? Did we lose the game by only 1 goal? Did we by all accounts put in a good shift? Is there any shame in losing away by a solitary goal at the bridge? Has this game in fact done the opposite of what most are making out?
I put it to you, that this game doesn't prove we have a threadbare squad, or that our team is poor or of a lesser quality than Chelsea. I say, it proves the exact opposite. ON ANY DAY of the week, Manchester city, whose team is worth millions and millions, could go to the bridge and lose by one goal, same applies to Arsenal, united, spurs...
We lost an away game to one of the title contenders, these things happen, but we gave a good account of ourselves. Against city even more so. There is nothing to suggest that if we had, Eriksen, Soldado, Mkhytaryan or Costa, we would have won that game. I think we did very well against both those teams away and IF...and I repeat, IF< I were to point the finger at someone for those defeats, I would point it at Mignolet. At the end of the day, his mistakes were the critical mistakes which cost us the game.
I am not saying he should be blamed, because he shouldn't, the team is a collective and should be analyzed as such, but if we look at whose mistake, or performance hurt us the most, it's hard to argue that it wasn't Mignolet.
