I understand this thought but I don't honestly like it. We need to expect better by now.
Our defence is in shambles. Our defensive team play is not working. We concede chances every match like there's no tomorrow. We leak goals almost every match (yeah, clean sheets against Genoa and Brescia). Spalletti first season 30 goals conceded. Second season 33 goals conceded. We're now conceded 31 goals already, 8 matches to go.
This season should have been a layup for the next one, we built the base now. But only thing it looks is that it's built on sand. That's what worries me. Can we fix this within next season when we absolutely NEED to challenge Juventus for the Scudetto right until the end? Because this season we have basically started scoring better but completely destroyed our defence. It's a new system, but there's been like zero progress. One can understand that bringing in new system won't be easy, it's hard at the start but should be better in the end. But we've gone only worse. Specially defensively.
Going to next season doesn't sound convincing if we've conceded like 40+ goals last season. That's like 10 too much.
honestly, you could make similar arguments for the firs season under Mourinho tbh.
We scored 70 and conceded 32 under him - Mancini was 69 scored and 26 conceded. We gained 1 less point under Mourinho than Mancini.
Hell, even in Mourinho's second season, we conceded more goals (34) than his first (32)
I think this team is on the cusp of greatness.
* Clear out on bench options - Perisic, Nainggolan, Valero, Joao Mario, Gagliardini, Vecino, Godin, Ranocchia, Candreva, Asamoah, Biraghi need to leave. This will allow us to bring in some good depth, e.g. Tonali, Kumbulla, Hakimi, Gosens?, another CB and a new CM.
I dont recall every goal we've conceded, but checking transfermarkt, we conceded:
* vs Cagliari with Vecino, Dambro and Ranocchia on the pitch
* vs Sampdoria with Gagliardini on the pitch
* vs Juve with Godin and Vecino (roughly x2)
* vs Sassuolo x3 with Gagliardini, Politano and Lazaro x2
* vs Parma with Gagliardini and Godin x2
* vs Brescia with Gagliardini and Godin
* vs Bologna with Gagliardini and Lazaro
* vs Verona with Vecino and Lazaro
* vs SPAL with Vecino, D'ambrosio and Gagliardini
* vs Fiorentina with Godin, Vecino
* vs Napoli with Vecino, gagliardini
* vs Atalanta with Gagliardini, Valero in MF and Godin in CB
* vs Lecce with pretty much a full starting XI Tbh
* vs Cagliari with Godin and Valero
* vs Milan x2 with Vecino and Godin
* vs Lazio x2 with Godin and Vecino
* vs Sampdoria with Gagliardini
* vs Juve x2 with Vecino
* vs Sassuolo x3 with Gagliardini, Vecino and Ranocchia x1
* vs Parma with Gagliardini and Godin
* vs Bologna with Gagliardini
I'm not asserting the named players are responsible for all those goals conceded - clearly not - but our starting XI has basically conceded one goal all season (mostly, probably, because Sensi's lack of availability, to be clear).
We are tweaks away from being a damn good team. We need to get rid of the hit and miss players like Gagliardini, Vecino, Valero, etc, and we could well go a long way to greatness. I dont think it'll solve everything, but itll make a difeference
This is where I'm hoping Tonali and potentially Nainggolan as our rotation MCs alongside Sensi or Barella will be really interesting for us - no one is going to assert those guys lack quality. Two good CBs, a LWB, and another striker/keeping Sanchez we're pretty golden.
During the treble, we had class depth - Cordoba, Materazzi, Stankovic, Balotelli, prime Santon - whilst those guys were often limited by age and so on they were class for first off the bench. We seriously lack that right now. Muntari and Mariga, really, were the only real liabilities coming off the bench, and I dont expect Mariga to fuck up like Gagliardini has done lately, only really Muntari.