Is Aston Villa's squad looking stronger or weaker than last season?

Having already sold Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby, and with Jhon Duran understood to be on his way out the Villa Park door soon, it appears as though Villa have a lot of different areas to cover and improve ahead of next season.

Across all competitions Luiz had 10 goals and 10 assists, Diaby had 9 goals and 10 assists whilst Duran scored 8 goals. Between them that's 27 goals and 20 assists across all competitions which is a huge number lost this summer.

Douglas Luiz left Villa after five years to sign for Juventus, and his deal worth £42 million was enough to ensure the club complied with the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules. Moussa Diaby is in the process of signing for Saudi Arabian club Al-Ittihad for a fee of 60 million euros plus add-ons, whilst Duran is highly likely to leave the club and West Ham seemingly being his likely destination.

Villa have signed a number of players already this summer in an attempt to improve the overall quality of the squad.

With a Champions League season ahead it was always likely that signings would need to be made to improve the depth in the squad, despite Emery claiming earlier in the window that he would only be making two or three signings. If you were to look at the starting XI that faced Crystal Palace on the final day of the season, the eight players on that bench only had 46 Premier League appearances between them, with Pau Torres, rested on the day, having 29 of those.

Of course Villa had their injury problems last season and a number of players were unable to be a part of the squad on that day. The likes of Tyrone Mings, Jacob Ramsey, Emi Buendia and Alex Moreno all played very little football last season due to injury and are now training with the team ahead of the new season. By putting those players back into the squad, Villa of course will look stronger.

When you look at a lot of the names to have left the club you could certainly argue that Villa have done well to improve the quality of their squad. Ross Barkley comes to Villa having had a sensational season for relegated Luton Town and brings a wealth of Premier League and (some) Champions League experience. Amadou Onana will arrive as Villa's record signing and will provide defensive from midfield stability that was absent during the second half of the season when Boubacar Kamara suffered his ACL injury.

Ian Maatsen joins having starred for Borussia Dortmund last season and will be a quality upgrade at left-back for the club. As a result, it looks likely that Lucas Digne will be departing the club.

It is understood from mutliple sources, including Fabrizio Romano, that Villa will look to sign a replacement for Moussa Diaby and likely one that can play as the number 10 and as the second striker so that one player can replaced both Diaby and Duran. Having already signed Jaden Philogene, who was brilliant for Hull City last season, Villa already have more quality in forward areas than they did last season. For those who are doubting how much of an impact Philogene can make due to being signed from the Championship then remember how much of an impact Morgan Rogers has already made at the club following his arrival from Middlesbrough in January.

You could also argue that Villa are yet to replace Douglas Luiz. Onana will provide excellence in terms of his defensive work from midfield but I don't believe he is a direct replacement for Luiz. Luiz is a player with skill and guile on the ball and could thread passes through the lines with ease. He also was Villa's main set-piece and penalty taker and therefore provided a lot of goals and assists. Onana is a different kind of player and has qualities in other areas but he won't replace the attacking numbers that Luiz produced last season. Ross Barkley can be that man but he is unlikely to be a regular starter in the Villa midfield.

In my opinion, I believe we currently have a stronger squad than we did last season and more options from the subs bench but we are still missing a couple of key replacements for outgoing players. If Villa were to make two more signings to replace Luiz, Duran and Diaby then Villa will be in a strong place come the start of the season. Otherwise, a new-centre half might be needed to replace Clement Lenglet who, in the end, played a lot of games for Villa and was reliable last season. With Tyrone Mings not featuring in Villa's first two pre-season games his fitness following his ACL injury suffered last August is under question.

UTV