We have definitely strengthened the squad in attack. One could argue that Ndiaye has raised that bar for the squad by himself - what a breath of fresh air he is.
In midfield, we lost Onana, the merits of whom we've debated over countless pages of GOT threads. Regardless how you feel about him, he was at worst an average midfield body with upside. We replaced him with the guy from Villa we had zero expectations for and Mangala. So let's call that, at best, a wash. We still have Doucoure plying his trade out there.
However, it's in defence we are no better than last season - just look at how bad we've been in defence without JB in there. Add to that our geriatric fullbacks, and we're not far from serious trouble.
Expectations? I think they should be to finish around where we did last season, without the points deductions. Our ceiling with this squad might be 5 points north of that, but a lot would need to go our way.
Realistically, this is another season we just need to slog through before we get into our new stadium and get the ownership situation sorted. Dyche has, on the whole, steered us through some choppy waters to get to this place.
