And he didn't even mention the fearsome Titan that is Schick. Think Terzic can handle him? Saturday is going to be a day of reckoning.
As for the season:
2. Dortmund
3. Dosen
4. Pillen
Anything lower than 2nd should be quite the disappointment for Dortmund, given their transfer window. It's not like their Manager would be a new face in town, as most of the current players were already there in 20/21.
There's always the risk that last season was just a purple patch, but I think unlike some other players Schick was genuinely very good throughout all of last season. So I wouldn't lump him in with some of the other names.
And what about Dortmund's window?
Adeyemi - I don't see the short term effect yet - he looks very raw to me and I wouldn't be surprised if he needs a season to settle in.
Özcan - there's only so much you can expect signing a player from Köln for €5m.
Süle/Schlotterbeck - that's where the net improvement seems really obvious, Schlotterbeck in particular looks quite exciting. But even then it comes at the cost of Akanji and (benching) Hummels.
Haller - at the moment you need to hope he gets well, before you can think about the football side.
I think in general the window looks promising, because it seems like Kehl is focusing on balance, effort and cohesion, but bottom line is: a bit better in defense a lot worse in attack (until Haller hopefully recovers).
And Terzic is still an unknown quantity. His interim stint was all about improvisation, which didn't go well at all at the beginning and was later (also) carried by the individual quality of Haaland, Reus and Sancho hitting form on the final stretch.
So to summarize I would neither say that the squad or the coaching situation is necessarily improved and I think performances will shape expectations: if the team starts well people will say "oh well, rebuild successful" and expect second place, but if they struggle people will say "oh well, it's a rebuild and what can you do with Haller getting ill" - at least to a degree (finishing top four).
The original point was that I believe our squad this season is better than Leipzig's if you compare individuals. Your point is basically: If Leverkusen is individually stronger than Leipzig and has a great coach, why don't they communicate the objective to finish in front of Dortmund and Leipzig? Well, Leipzig isn't communicating this objective either because you might end up looking incredibly stupid doing so. What they say behind closed doors is not important. Carro for instance has also talked about winning titles publicly, as have a few players.
Personally, I believe neither Leipzig nor Leverkusen will have a chance at top 2, as much as I want it to happen. The reason being that Bayern will still be ahead of everybody and because I start to rate Terzic. We had a few discussions about the tactical route Dortmund should be taking and I already thought that Terzic in his first spell implemented a much better possession and counter pressing heavy style than Favre. What I've seen so far, this seems to be the case again and his interviews seem to confirm it. So he could quickly prove to be a better coach than Seoane.
Also, I have mixed feelings about Seoane and Diaby, as you know. As a top club I'd stay clear of Diaby I believe and Seoane still has a lot to learn, especially in terms of controlling weaker teams.
I don't expect Leverkusen to publicly communicate big targets aside from the usual "WE CAN WIN TITLES TOO, YOU KNOW?!?!?" memes, because that would create pressure that Leverkusen wants to avoid. I just think there is a disconnect in this thread between the purported level of the squad and the expectations that should go along with such evaluations.
E.g. you told me that Diaby is worth €60m and very much like Ousmane Dembele and tried to sell me Seoane as a possession coach, who creates high probability chances instead of using a head through the wall approach. Now when it comes to formulating concrete expectations for the season to measure those people against you're telling me you have reservations about Diaby and the same Seoane actually still has a lot to learn when controlling weaker teams. The second best defense in Germany doesn't concede 4 goals in Elversberg and if they do their coach must be one hell of an idiot.
And what has changed about Terzic? He lost both serious(ish) pre season friendlies without particularly amazing play and while we can't take wins against third division for granted I guess, it's nothing game changing if you do it. Saturday will be his first data point.