Yes, relative quality of squad, which was a squad good enough to finish 12th, 1 point off 10th just 3 months earlier and has by most peoples agreement (including yours) been slightly improved over the summer.
If we are just going to compare squads on paper, then there’s zero point being in a league structure. As we literally had the 12th best squad last season, and were very close (1 point) to having the 10th best.
There isn’t any point with you as you just ignore anything you get asked.
How many points do you realistically think we get in the next 8 games?
You keep confusing league position with squad quality either deliberately or not.
Did we have the 4th highest quality squad in 05 because we finished 4th? Did Martinez have the 11th best squad in 14/15 but the 5th best one the season before in 13/14?
Of course not. There’s a quality ranking of where the squad is on paper and then managers are assessed as to whether they over or under perform against that. Guardiola can’t finish 7th this season and claim his squad is therefore the 7th best. It’s a ridiculous way of assessing squad quality although conveniently fits with your agenda.
When Dyche came in we had one of the worst squads in the league. Your buddy MikeH said it would be ‘beyond a miracle’ if we stayed up. Dyche took them to a ppg that would have seen 44 points across a 38 game season. I classed that as an over performance for a squad I considered 19th best that season.
Last season we finished effectively 12th with a squad I considered to be maybe the 15th or 16th best.
This season I’ve said we perhaps have the 13th best, we’re under performing that at the moment but the season isn’t over.
So out of 3 entries in my book he’s over performed the natural squad quality twice and is currently underperforming but the season hasn’t finished.
Contrast that with Martinez taking a squad that was probably 6th or 7th best to 11th twice.
Using your logic Moyes should have been tasked with finishing third in 05/06 because he had the 4th best team so it’s not unreasonable for him to progress the players, that’s his job, blah blah blah.
Saying we finished a point off 10th last season so it’s reasonable to say we can be 9th this season is an utterly ridiculous argument as I expect you well know. If we had the 9th best squad on paper then maybe that would be true but you’re effectively getting very very angry at Dyche for not taking the 13th best group of players in the league at least 4 positions higher than where they should be.