I am one who don't include the previous season, as to me the season was effectively over, the cup was won, the players were winding down.
This season was all that mattered to me, and it could be said that he only got 24 points from 24 games, but that is not taking into account the cluster of fixtures with the Europa, the early start to the season for us, the other cups, the injuries over the December period. I mean even at that rate, with our cluster of fixtures, we would have survived, as 18th only got 33 points.
Those who fail to accept how much pressure the Europa League put on us as a club, and on the players are doing the club and the players a massive disservice.
We all knew the fixture list was getting less congested, with some easier (not easy in simple terms, but quality of opposition, after all Cardiff are easier than Man City

or Fulham for that matter lol) games to come, we knew we had injuries coming back, for me our Premier League survival was never in doubt. Not once.
Did we have some bad games last season, of course we did, we were playing 2 games a week, whilst opposition teams were fresher. It took its toll, yet we were still above the relegation zone whilst other teams with far easier fixture lists were doing much worse. We were 12th when he was sacked, that left 8 teams who were worse than us, and they didn't have the cluster of fixtures as a reason. So why the panic? It was only going to get easier for us as a club and group of players. The hard part was out of the way. The group faze was over, the over-packed December schedule was over. We had just come back from 2 wins against United and Fulham. Granted a loss in-between and after.
Some were moaning about the training, but I made comments about that in the past, you cannot train when your on a plane, or on a bus travelling. And we were doing that more than most clubs. We are not your Man City, Man Utd, who have pretty much 2 first teams to choose from. Better clubs than us have struggled with the Europa, Newcastle, Fulham are 2 clubs who have recently been in it and struggled. Fulham 2 seasons ago had 27 points from 24 games. Newcastle the season before us, whilst in the Europa, after 24 games had 24 points too. So why do we think we should have been any better? They didn't panic and sack the manager, and they survived. Although if memory serves me right, the Newcastle fans wanted Pardew sacked.
Am sorry, but the ML sacking for me was a panic reaction, the fans who were calling for his head have a lot to answer for IMO. They failed to accept that we are a small club, that had a tough time last season, through fixtures, injuries, lack of training time through travelling, players going behind the managers back.