If 'by design' you mean he thinks we should be good enough then maybe that's so (and maybe he's right, when we lose to teams like Watford and Swansea it's not because our players aren't good enough).
I thought was the implication was he knows we're not good enough but deliberately doesn't try and address that. I'm not sure why he'd do that.
He might not be able to, he might have too much confidence in the players, but I doubt he's deliberately leaving us short because he hates us all or something!