De Gea - Onana: No. Short term memory not updated.
AWB - Dalot/Mazraoui: No. Jesus.
Bailly - De Ligt: No. No. No.
Mengi - Martinez/Maguire: Not by a very, very long shot.
Fred - Mainoo: Short term knee jerk Jesus.
McTom - Ugarte/Eriksen/Casemiro: Why?
Voldemort - Garnacho/Diallo: Harry Potter
Pereira - Bruno: STM. Jesusx2
Sancho - Rashford/Garnacho: How long must the grass be on the other side of the fence before it gets a resemblance of green?
Elenga (sic) - Højlund/Zirkzee: No. Not even in Ralf’s world.
Battering? Why so much drama, Drama Queens?
De Gea/Onana: De Gea was (and is) a substantially, better shot stopper than Onana. De Gea by some distance
AWB/
Mazraoui: AWB is the better defender, but Mazraoui is better with the ball...but we really aren't getting as much out of Mazraoui as we should be. Mazraoui by a nose
Bailly/
De Ligt: Despite his slow start, De Ligt every day of the week. De Light by some distance
Mengi/
Martinez: Martinez, but if we're going to be honest Martinez just hasn't been anywhere close to the same player since his injuries last season. Martinez at peak, but now I'm not so sure
Fred/
Mainoo: Mainoo was close to world class for a few months last season but he's come off the boil considerably. Give it to Mainoo but Fred is criminally underrated here.
McTominay/Casemiro: Peak Casemiro blows away peak McTominay but the Casemiro of today is hard to even watch. I haven't seen McTominay at Napoli but I keep reading great things. Tie
Greenwood/Garnacho: We had to let him go, but Greenwood over Garnacho all day long.
Pereira/
Bruno: Depends which Bruno we want to talk about. The Bruno today is pale shadow of his peak three season ago and calls for him to dropped are not few. Bruno, but not by that much.
Sancho/Rashford: The Rashford of three seasons ago was a sight to behold but for whatever reason he's fallen apart. Tie
Elanga/Hojlund: I've watched both over the last season and if we're going to be honest, Elanga > Hojlund. But there's still hope for Rasmus. Elanga
Although Onana has improved this season, if we're going by last season's performances for all these players our current XI is arguably worse than the castaway XI, but for a variety of reasons those players had to be sol or let go. The castaway XI has a better keeper, a better striker, but the current XI has a better back line and is probably a wash in midfield -- which got overrun then and gets overrun now, which may have more to do with the manager's tactics than the players to be fair.
However, Onana has vastly improved so far over last season, Rashford has seen a tiny uptick in form and there is hope now for Hojlund although he'll likely be a long term backup striker and never a striker than scores more than 15 goals a season so for us.
Point is, our squad isn't that much stronger, if it all, than it was last season or the season before last.