Last season we had a lot of criticism on our defence while we did not concede that much comparing for example to madrid.
Bartra now having more experience & pique needing to perform as we have a new coach and 2 new CB's who for sure have the capability to take his place if he doesn't perform.
At the same time this means we can have mascherano pushing busquets to perform as mascherano won't be needed in defence.
Mathieu and vermaelen are not the youngest but they should be at a good age for a defender and both having good speed which is what we were requiring for a new CB. Despite the age, both can still have some good years in them to serve us well.(both not world class but for sure they are not bad at all neither and with those prices it allowed us to get 2 io 1 while still allowing us to spend money on strengthening other positions)
A midfield which should be able to work harder to press opposition as we got rakitic to replace cesc while also having rafinha who should allow us to rest xavi more often.
In attack we added suarez while at the same time making sure he would not go to madrid giving them a deadly front 3 while hopefully neymar will improve after adjusting to la liga last season. Add to that deulofeu who should offer something extra in attack (imo).
So looking at our transfers, we managed to improve in every compartiment, only the GK position I am not sure we improved compared to valdes but we simply had no choice there so looking at that, we also did a very good job replacing him (& pinto). Next to that we have some talented players in the B team as well so I think we have a lot to look forward for.