I agree that defence was the primary reason that cost us the league that season. A secondary reason was depth - we had simply no solutions or game changers coming from the bench. A tertiary reason was pragmatic and experienced Champions mentality at crucial points, where it mattered (and it was mostly down to Rodgers) - the approach to the Chelsea game still shocks me to this day. How can you fall for Mourinho's tactics when it's them that needed more than a point and when for us a draw would do...especially if we would thrive in case they'd take the bait, as our counter attack was lethal, while if they'd stay put, we'd still be fine with the point. Win-win. Instead, nooooo, attack like hell and stay true to guns-ablaze style, god forbid we try to adapt to what we need (how unlucky for Gerrard to be the one that did the mistake caused by our flawed approach to the game - he deserved it the least from all players, and us fans deserved it even less to endure such a disaster by the manager).
But all that said, I can't seem to forget Sterling's disallowed goal vs City in the first round, where I think it would make for a totally different game had it stood (which it should). We lost that game, and I believe it would have been very difficult for City to come back from that, let alone win.
I believe we'd be talking about 6 points difference (-3 for them and +3 for us had we gone on to win that game), or 3 points difference had we drawn that one (-2 for them, +1 for us). Both scenarios enough to make it even more impossible to blow up later on. That ref decision still hurts, it was so clearly not offside that it felt so unjust.
But anyway, yes, overall I agree, no conspiracy.