I kind of get where you’re going but I think you could also make a completely reasonable counter argument to all these points and that probably points to us all not really having much idea what’s going on.
Kerkez - as @Zoran points out, Kerkez isn’t a flying fullback as some might think. He’s also still extremely young and still learning the game. He may have more of that attacking ability in his locker but it needs nurturing as it’s not his natural way.
Isak - Lot of people aren’t happy with how he uses his squad and we’ve a £120m striker who needs game time. We have to accept some kind of rotation based on fitness rather than form and it’s far riskier injury wise to bring Isak on that it is for him to start. Well, muscle injury wise anyway.
Wirtz - I think he’s largely been fine but the whole team hasn’t been on the same wavelength. I genuinely think it’s less about his positioning or use and more about the wider issues within the team not allowing for him to excel.
Right flank - we lost Trent. Not really anyone’s fault but Trent’s. So now we have to find a right back and hope he gels with Salah on that side. We have two decent options but both have struggled with fitness and now Salah is away. Szoboslai has had to be shunted around and Macca is woefully short of form so the whole flank is disrupted, not just Mo. That’s very different from 5-6 years of a pretty set pairing of TAA and Salah.
There’s just been a lot of change in a short amount of time and then pretty much every player that’s come in has also had some kind of injury issue along the way. And that’s compounded further by missing out on Guehi who might well have been trusted enough for Konate to be dropped when this bad run started.
I think my point here is that these things are rarely the fault of one person or one error. Some will want to blame the manager, some will point fingers at players, others will want Hughes’ head on a stick for the recruitment we didn’t do or doing too much of it and there may even be one or two very optimistic ones who’ll think we’ve been unlucky with injuries, decisions or some fine margins.
Ultimately there’s an element of all those things at play. Did we really need to sell Quansah and Diaz? Why did we leave the Isak and Guehi deals so late and spend £200m on CFs but leave Gakpo as our only senior LW. Why has the team been so open and why are we so bad at set pieces? Why hasn’t Slot been able to get more from Wirtz and Isak or dropped under performers quicker? How unlucky are we that our right backs seem to be alternating injuries and two of our four CBs got injured at the same time, one of whom is done for the season in his first game from an innocuous incident.
Little things add up. They eat away at confidence and conviction. We can all point the finger whichever way we see fit but there are errors and mistakes all over the place and they’re all feeding into the mess that is this season. The big question is whether Slot can overcome them, and his own shortcomings this season, to keep us on track for a CL spot next season and do a sufficient reset in the summer.
