i've said it before, and i'm sticking to it even if we win the scudetto again (which is unfortunately highly unlikely to happen):
- compared to last season, our defensive lineup looked stronger a month ago. getting rid of ogbonna, and replacing him with rugani is already a huge improvement. add alex sandro to the mix, and it's already time to hail the mighty bepps. unfortunately, licht's injury and caceres' idiotic car crash/dui case created a crisis on the right of the defense, but it's not marotta to blame for it.
- we have more options in the attack, too: mandzukic is a class center, certainly better than llorente (as much as i loved nando being in the squad). zaza is a quality sub, one of the best bench strikers in the league. dybala is a bright talent, already ready to make an impact. but losing tevez is a huge blow, one we cannot handle yet. on the long run, our attack is probably stronger, but looking at our league run so far, it's clear that we are dearly missing tevez.
- the midfield suffered the biggest blow: both vidal and pirlo were proven players, always ready to make an impact. starting the season with either padoin or hernanes as a regista is a bad joke. for the last couple of seasons, we had no issues replacing injured players with quality options in the midfield. now we lost 2 key players, and replaced them with who? the fact that khedira made a huge impact for the last 2 matches means we lack depth in this department. also, pogba is clearly having unexpectedly huge difficulties in handling the pressure on him as a leader.
overall, i still have mixed feelings about our summer mercato. bringing in young players like rugani, dybala and sandro:

letting our midfield quality and depth vanish: :frown: i have very high hopes for one of lemina and asamoah to shine. that alone could save our season.