I think they were all just emotionally wrecked and exhausted, we weren’t getting relegated, had a big summer looming, and they just said fuck it. Let’s effectively shut it down and regroup for next season. It’s hardly downed tools or some damning indictment of Howe. If anything it’s preservation.
All I personally wanted to see after the Barca series was a little tweaking of the team setup and lineups, with an eye towards next season, and we got some of that. I didn’t expect us to win a bunch of games and push for the top 6/8 (although I thought it might be possible). I knew it was the emotional end of the season post-Barca.