They did though. A better start and we are neck and neck with Leiecester and Ipswich a lot earlier. We hit our good run and mayeb pull away, or at least pull away from 3rd place. Then the pressure isn't on as much, we can drop points and still go up etc. We saw with Bielsa season 2 that we had ups and downs throughout the season but beacuse we'd had a good start we were always there or thereabouts. We then had a coupld of good runs, pre-covid break and then after the Cardiff loss post covid break which saw us cement our place so that we could afford to lose a couple of games. As such it never got to any 'must win' type matches for us and we were able to navigate our ways to wins such as those against Swansea and Barnsley where we weren't great but didn't need to go all out for a win at the risk of losing (ala Blackburn).
It also meant as we were always chasing there was less option to experiment. We did it the once, lost to Stoke and never risked it again as we couldn't afford to risk dropping points. As such this likely leads to a bit of burnout either physically or mentally towards the end of the season. Ipswich got off to a flyer and were then able to experiment, rotate a bit more, bring subs on early etc. Did it help them at the end of the season? Cannot say for definite but it probably didn't harm them. The fact their subs all seemed to come on and do well helped too whereas we had the likes of Gnonto or Bamford coming on and doing nothing.
So for me the start of the season wouldn't have been an issue if it wasn't for Leicester and Ipswich getting off to amazing starts. Leicester were able to have a huge wobble, bigger than ours, and recover as all that happened was that their huge lead was cut. Same for Ipswich they had a biggish wobble but were able to recover. We never got to the point where we were more than a point or two ahead of Ipswich. We never got into a real position of strength it was always where there was still huge pressure on the next game.
I agree our end cost us but our start played a significant part in our end being what it was.
Hopefully we can get off to a decent start next season and build momentum and be in a strong position all season whereby we can afford to have a dip or two without going into meltdowm.