There can be no doubt that Saints have a stronger squad than last season, but will the starting XI be better, here we take a look.
If I had to put my finger on just one difference between Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman, I would have to say it would be one word and that word is "Squad" our former manager preferred to work with a core group of around 13/14 outfield players and anyone outside of that would only get a game if someone was injured, but even in that 13/14 it was very rigid for Pochettino, when Dejan Lovren was out for instance he would not consider using Calum Chambers as a central defender, but would bring in Yoshida or Hooiveld.
This meant that the squad system was pretty much non existent, Pochettino knew his own starting XI and played that whatever the game or circumstance barring injury, even the substitutions were like for like.
Hence we had a squad that was not match fit and must have been de motivated knowing that unless someone was injured, whatever happened they would not be getting a game, look at Calum Chambers last season after starting the first 3 games and playing 13 minutes as sub in the 4th, he did not see any other Premier League action till 7th December a period of nearly 3 months were he sat on the bench every game yet did not get on the pitch, similarly Jack Cork, when he came on at half time against Aston Villa on 4th December he had appeared in only 4 previous Premier League games, three of those had been as a final minute sub and only in the 4th game did he get any sort of game time, a massive 6 minutes to be exact.
Already Ronald Koeman looks a manager who uses his squad on a game by game basis to adapt to any given situation, but not only that, to him the bench is giving him options to change games rather than just as insurance should someone get injured.
Over the last couple of months Koeman has been not just rebuilding the team, but building a squad and that could be crucial come the end of the season, last season Pochettino's "team" pretty much went to the form book in terms of that it mainly beat the bottom 5, it had mixed results against the 7 teams that finished below us and it was poor against the teams above us.
That showed we weren't using the squad, if we had of done could we have changed some of those results from draws or losses to wins, it could be said we finished 8th in spite of Pochettino and not because of him, a stat backed up by the fact that under him in the 15 months he was at the club we had plenty of games where we scored first and lost, but not once did we go behind in a game and win.
Under Ronald Koeman that has already changed, at West Ham we not only changed the team to adapt to West Ham's game, but we changed it tactically in the 2nd half and in the end came from behind to win, Koeman didn't use all his sub's but the two he brought on were used well.
So lets take a look at our squad now and see if we are stronger or weaker than we were last season.
Goalkeeper (stronger)
I liked Artur Boruc, but I think Fraser Forster is stronger and better, therefore I think we are stronger in this department, even more so if Boruc stays put and sits on the bench.
Right back. (stronger)
A strong position for us last year as we had Clyne and Chambers, but now we still have Clyne, we also have Alderweireld who can play there and Jack Cork can as well, given that Chambers was not first choice there and only played when Clyne was injured we are definately as strong here probably stronger.
Central Defence (stronger)
Last season we had Fonte and we had Lovren then we had Yoshida, now we have Alderweireld and Gardos to replace Lovren, the position as whole is stronger what we need to find out though whether the first choice pairing is better than last years, I would say overall it has the potential to be, but the key area is veratility, both Alderweireld and Gardos can play in other positions if need be and will offer good cover in injury, that being the case even if we accepted that Lovren was better than both, given the time out he had for injury, I would say the point or two that Lovren won us last season was cancelled out by those we lost through his injuries, now we have the right cover, this being the case i think we are stronger.
Left Back (stronger)
Luke Shaw was obviously a class act, but in the hype a lot of people missed the fact that he was not that great going forward, Plastic Bertrand seems to be faster and more inventive doing this, however defensively Shaw probably shades it, but so far we dont seem to have lost anything with Bertrand and again it comes down to cover, last year we had none and relied on Clyne swapping sides, this year we have the emerging Targett, this is tight when it comes to deciding but I still feel we are stronger here.
Central midfield (stronger)
No doubt here we are stronger, we have kept Schneiderlin and added options, Tadic can play in the centre and Gardos can also play there.
Wide(stronger)
Im using the general term wide here, last season our wide options consisted of Adam Lallana and Jay Rodriguez, this season although we have lost one player we have added three, Tadic, Long & now Mane can all play in the wide attacking role but all are different and can offer something that can change a game, Tadic is like Lallana but faster and more direct, Long is more like J Rod, but the real change seems to be in Sadio Mane, he would appear to be the genuine Pace that we have lacked for so long, therefore especially when J Rod returns we have so many options and all of them can play either up front or centrally in midfield if required.
Striker (stronger)
If just compare Pelle to Rickie Lambert the jury is out, but last season after Osvaldo left our options were limited up front, this year we have more than one, Pelle showed on Saturday he is adapting to the English game, if he hits 10 Premier goals from open play then he will have outscored Rickie, however that is yet to be known, but now we have options, J Rod could play up front as he did sometimes last year, Shane Long can play up front, Tadic can play as a striker and so can Mane, again this is a position that we are so much stronger in.
Overall I think as a squad we are that much stronger now and that we also have a youngster or two that might be ready to step up to the plate in Matt Targett, Lloyd Isgrove, Sam McQueen and Harrison Reed, players that last year were too raw, but are now a little bit more experienced, they never really got that experience last year, ochettino preferred to use Guly than any of them, but now they are a year older and stronger, but more importantly they have a manager that is prepared to use them and indeed his squad as a whole, the full squad has motivation that they could force their way into the managers plans, last season that was not there, Pochettino's way of working was a lot different.
The main difference in my opinion is 4 key areas where we have lost players, I discount Chambers and right back as he was never the first choice, so that leaves.
Central Defender - Is one of the new boys better than Lovren - We dont know yet
Left Back - Does Bertrand offer more than Shaw - I don't think he is quite the player Shaw is but I think he offers more
Wide Attack - Will Tadic, Long or Mane offer more than Lallana, given that Lallana could not hack the high tempo pressing game for more than 65 minutes usually, think between these three they will offer a lot more
Striker - I think that we moved Lambert on at the right time here just as he was slowing down, Pelle is a better more mobile player than Rickie was last season, Rickie of 2/3 years ago perhaps not, but now Pelle seems to have what it takes and we have options other than Sam Gallagher in games its not working
So to go back to the original question, we undoubtably have a stronger squad, but I do think we now have a stronger team, football clubs are about keeping moving forward and improving the squad and team, I think as painful as it has been, this summer has seen that.
If we had kept everyone then there would have been little funds to improve the team and the best we could have hoped for would have been to repeat the season, it wasn't ideal to lose so many key players, but the truth is only 3 of them were truly key and I think we have replaced them well.
Proof of the pudding is in the eating though, the next few months will answer the question in those key areas, but I think that overall the points we might drop that Lovren/Lallana/Shaw/Lambert might have gained us will be eclipsed by those we win, as on Saturday at West Ham, because we have a stronger squad that is well used by a manager who knows what tactics are.