Comparing second half of last season to first half of this season.....
Patterson is a big improvement on near retirement Coleman
Tarks and Coady a big upgrade on centre back partnership of last season
Gana, Onana and Garner make sure we dont see Gomes, Davies (much) and Allan (much). Even Doucoure will struggle for game time.
Up front, swapping Richie for Maupay is downgrade but Richie missed a lot of games last season for various reasons and only caught fire at the death. Mc Neil strikes me as a poor shot on the recruitment front. But Gordon is incomparable to what he was last season.
It is hard to imagine Dominic Calvert-Lewin missing as much as he did last season and if he gets fit and plays, it is a paradigm shifter. Townsend on one leg is a quality crosser for Dominic Calvert-Lewin come Halloween.
There might be a bit of logic in not going bananas because with the world cup, there are only 11 playing weeks to the next window.
It would be great to get a wide forward or two in but if Lampard gets the system right with a 4-3-3, we will be fine until we add one or two in January.
If he insists on 5-3-2, we will be in trouble regardless.
That is the real danger now.