Hugo is a problem right now, his kicking has always been a problem but somehow it feels worse right now whenever they press, can’t make life as a defender easy but when you add that to the fact he is making more unforced errors then ever before I don’t think even playing 8 defenders would stop us conceding right now.
Maybe he will play himself back into some sort of form, not like Forster is going to be an improvement.
The injuries, as mentioned above, is also an issue. Not with the quantity but more the who..other then Kane, the players you don’t want to lose is Kulu, Romero, Bentacur and Sonny (normally) yet all these players have suffered this season not allowing us to play any form of consistent team with our best players.
Then we have form, Sonny has been great, albeit streaky, for a very long time and all players have a poor season from time to time but couple that with the injuries + Hugo and the picture starts to look different.
Ultimately Conte is right that this team needs a few seasons to be ready to compete, so as long as he is willing we should give him the time to do that - changing manager is not the automatic go to every time and only have to look at Arteta to understand why. In fact, most fans of that lot wanted him gone for the last 2 seasons as his tactics were inflexible, he wasn’t getting the best out of his players, couldn’t manage the characters (sound familiar anyone?)