My opinions on the current situation....

[wazza2408]

Let's face it, a great of number of the Lcfc squad achieved more last season than they could have imagined in two playing careers let alone one. Well now the wheels are coming off. At an alarming rate.
Even before winning the league last season, some of those players would have potentially needed moving on in the summer and certainly at the end of this summer. That hasn't changed and now they are being found out, couple with that a number of them performing way above their level and sustaining it along the magical ride.
5 of the 6 performances in the champions league have been somewhere near the level of last season but it makes sense, they are on a new platform, a new challenge they never expected to be offered in their careers and with that the fact that 2/3 teams in that group would potentially struggle to stay in the premier league sheds a little light on it, not taking anything way as it has been fantastic & they deserve a glamour tie against Real or Bayern, or do we want a crack at a Benfica to maybe reach the last 8? That is another debate.
The issue is the players have had their 'Nico Rosberg moment' and he walked away as he maybe wondered if he could achieve it again or be as committed. And I didn't for one minute expect that commitment to take us to the top again, never in a million years. Look at schools when then are awarded outstanding by Ofsted, some work hard and progress further, some rest on their laurels and slide backwards.
Not all of this lies at the fault of the players. We poorly recruited in the summer, none of the signings have premier league experience, we did lose our fantastic head of recruitment but I'm sure a number of the deals were already done by him so not all the blame can be pointed to the members of that team left. Some of it can be pointed to Claudio. And yes it's time to move on to him. What a gentleman, what an amazing way he handled all the pressure last season and is doing well under a certain amount of pressure so far this term but his management is now under serious scrutiny. When he took over in the summer of 2015 he didn't change much, he admitted that, tweaked a few things, added Fuchs to the back 4 who had already been signed, used Okazaki in the right way. Kante, yes couldn't not mention him, was one of the best 3 players I've ever seen in a city shirt and yet this is a player Steve Walsh badgered Ranieri to sign. And a player who without doubt we are missing beyond belief, however it is more than that. It is some of the above but it also Ranieri now who needs to prove his worth. He has to sort the players out, unfortunately it lies at his feet. He has to find a plan B and a plan C. We can't keep fielding the closest 11 to last year in the same formation and hope it somehow clicks which is what it feels like at present. He needs to work out how to get the best out of the current squad to stay in the division this season. We can all point to the January window but very often do clubs sign players that will slot in and hit the ground running in January, so we may add one or two but relying on that helping to improve things is a risk. The squad needs an overhaul, the manager needs to prove he is the man to do this and at the moment questions are starting to be asked and will continue. Ranieri said when he took over that the owners said he stays even if we go down, I hope we don't get the answer to that question. 
This isn't some knee jerk response after last night, yes he made changes but last night there was a complete lack of fight, effort and commitment. It also shows our squad has little depth in quality. And it was a champions league away game in which some of those players will never play again and they couldn't perform or even try. That is what is worrying, not so much the score line. 

[Captain...]

tl;dr

[norwichfox]

It didn't really need another thread on this, there's a couple going already where this post would fit in

[wazza2408]

Sorry, apologies. It's more a mini blog than a thread. I'll delete after a few hours.