I think this a pretty refreshing take from Pep, most managers would gladly just accept the signing of more and more toys given the size of budget available to Pep.

From a villa fans perspective we started the season with a psr enforced cull on squad size, and we have dropped significant points because of it. We had matches with midfielders having to play as centre backs and other matches with centre backs acting as full backs.

With a larger squad as we have had from end of January transfer window in February we have rallied because of new recruits and people returning from injury. If we had that from the start then how much further up would we have been?

Conversely we have had issues with Watkins/Duran and then Watkins/Rashford sharing the role of striker, it’s hardly the days of United and their four strikers as its just two people at a time, but managing that even with ~60 games a season isn’t always straightforward.