The squad, whilst marginally stronger than last season, is still thin. At times last year we struggled when we were missing two or three first teamers through injury. At time Osman, Pienaar, Baines were playing when they were patently not fit.
Now it may be that Martinez has higher levels of trust in a fully fit but unproven youngster over a half fit, but experienced 'old head' than
Moyes did. This immediately increases our strength in numbers.
That said, all we've done is replace three released players with four new faces. I'm not arguing that Robles, Kone, Alcaraz and Deulofeu are not improvements on Mucha, Neville and Hitzlsperger; they clearly are. But we were short of numbers last season, and we're short of numbers currently.
As Goat says. We need a central midfielder; we only have two to fit Martinez' ethos at present.
But, we have no money. So something has to give.