I think that the true test of our progress in terms of the quality of the squad, and the degree to which Deano has learned from last season, will be how Villa perform against the teams around us.
Beating the strugglers at the very bottom, and losing against the very top teams clearly tell us nothing (so the Liverpool game is a free hit and then move on).
The key to the mid table comfort we all seek lies in taking enough points off Burnley, Crystal Palace, Brighton, Newcastle, Southampton etc.
I still maintain there is more to this than just squad quality. To be anywhere near effective and consistent enough to get those points we need to see this bunch of strangers formed into a coherent team who are drilled and prepped properly in the system that Dean wants to play.
I know some people don't like the comparison in part because of being a local rival and also because of a bit of sour grapes and jealousy etc, but purely from a coaching standpoint when Nuno took charge of Wolves, and even before the Mendes players started to appear, it took him the matter of about a month to 6 weeks to organise his players and get them playing his system as a team.
My main criticism of Dean last season was that he was clearly struggling to implement the system he chose (and whether it was the right system approach for the first year back and to avoid relegation). For 34 games we looked a shambles, even accounting for not having the right players brought in and them taking time to settle - they always looked utterly clueless and under prepared, like a bunch of strangers playing for the first time and not really understanding their roles. This is coaching 101 and that's why I was so scathing match after match because it wasn't improving, it was visibly getting worse which is another sign that the coach isn't competent or doing his job properly.
Now after lockdown at least we saw some pragmatism, and to his credit Dean had clearly worked with the players to be more cagey and not concede so early.
But, in a new season what I think we now need to see is more progress in making a team out of the better players he has at his disposal. Based on how long he has had and the lack of sustained progress so far you can appreciate even if you don't agree, that I remain pretty sceptical of his actual ability to do the most critical and accountable part of his job - form a team to get results at the top level.
Time will tell and hopefully as I keep repeating, that the decision from Dean to bolster his coaching support with Craig Shakespeare will bear fruit and that Craig is able to practically implement what Dean couldn't do in 18 months. I wish them both every success because sorting out the basics across the team is worth more than any number of expensive signings by themselves.
