You are making excuses after excuse after excuse for finishing 7/8th, possibly lower and no good in cups season after season after season.
I don't want to sound patronising as you sound like an intelligent fella but you are completely blinkered to reality.
We keep finishing 8th because we are the 8th best team in the league - largely due to winning lots of home game, especially when the pressure is off 2nd half of a season. With this squad we will do well to finish 8th next season.
We are probably about the 25th best cup team in England - that tells you all you need to know about the players mental strengths or how they cope with individual pressure games.
Is is time for people to stop making excuses for the faillings of everyone from the ownership through DOF, through managers, through players.
Demand change, a change of culture, of expectation. But most importantly demand a change of a large number of players.