I don't post often but I feel i want to air my opinion. I fully support any LFC manager whilst he is in the seat. There are a number of factors that need to be considered when judging Brendan I feel.
1. This not the same league that united ran away with for years. Many teams are very difficult to beat. Any team on their day are capable of beating anyone. Villa are not a sure bet like they were in years gone by. Look at the city result. They just barely got a result at home after spending billions.
2. Changing managers will not guarantee any chnge .Teams spend millions getting players and world class managers still can't win cups or titles.
3. I don't think " mitigating " circumstances is a valid argument when it comes to judging our manager and if he should be given another season. What happens if couthinho got injured for most of next year and Henderson takes some laughing gas. My point is every manager has to deal with mitigating circumstances in a season, rarely is a season perfect. When it is we see how close we can come based on last year.
My conclusion would be that spending money doesn't guarantee success, a manager doesn't guarantee success but with one or two world stars ( Suarez last year) and a good run of luck you can " compete" and challenge. This is what I think Brendan should be judged on. When he has the world stars and things are going well , to we compete? Me personally I think we need to stick with the manager, hope that the owners open their wallet and sign one or two stars and we challenge again next year. Then we dream again:-)
To address your points
1. Actually, the league is a lot weaker and evidence to that English teams have been useless in the Champions league, plus Man Utd and other squads aren't as good as they used to be (Remember the time they had Tevez, C.Ronaldo, Scholes, Vidic, Ferdinand, Van der Saar, Rooney & Neville playing in the same first team.... the same with Chelsea they had a firing Drogba, Lampard, Carvalho, Younger Terry, Peter Cech etc...
2. While it might not guarantee any change, changing a manager to a better and superior manager gives us a higher chance of success (Changing Houllier to Rafa, Hodgson to Kenny). A good manager knows how to deal with few resources (Klopp at Dortmund, Simone at Atletico), also knows how to cope with losing his best player (Ferguson losing C.Ronaldo).
3. I totally agree with your point, spot on.
Having quality players wins you titles, and yes a bit of luck too! But 11 quality players on the field wins you titles. 20% of success comes from coaching, tactics, etc... but 80% is down to the quality at your disposal, this is why Man Utd dominated the league, they had players like C.Ronaldo, Tevez, Ferdinand, Van Der Saar, Rooney, Neville, Vidic, Scholes and Giggs in the first team, absolutely top class spine... and of course Howard Webb
. We actually had a top class spine under Rafa who fought that team, we had Reina, Hyypia, Carragher, Alonso, Mascherano, Torres, younger Gerrard and Aurelio (when fit), 9 players would walk into our first team right now and make us challengers, even winners. My conclusion is that if we make it right buy improving our spine with quality then we will be ok, however, I cannot trust the manager in charge with the money as his transfers so far has been poor.