Around the time FC Cincinnati's first Major League Soccer offseason started, the prevailing and loud criticism was that the club saddled itself with too many returning players from a campaign that produced just six victories.

When preseason training kicked off Monday in Tucson, Arizona, with the offseason having played out in its entirety, that criticism didn't look as sharp as it did in early October.

Fanendo Adi was waived and no longer with the club. Emmanuel Ledesma was gone. The league-worst defense still had everything to prove but had been reinforced up and down the roster, and especially on the back line.

A new designated player in Yuya Kubo was in the camp, along with at least eight other newcomers including the club's two SuperDraft picks.

FC Cincinnati's courtship of PSV Eindhoven midfielder Gaston Pereiro reportedly ended, but further acquisitions and other player movement was expected.

The club had plenty of familiar faces but the turnover, as well as the spirit of the front office's pursuit of a more competitive team, widely exceeded expectations.

We won't know the sum of the current parts until next autumn and the returning players will face skeptics throughout 2020, but it's clear the new squad is a far cry from the 2019 team.

So far, this is what FC Cincinnati's working with:

Goalkeepers

Returning players: Spencer Richey, Przemysław Tytoń, Ben Lundt.

New acquisitions for 2020: Bobby Edwards.

Other: Jimmy Hague (waived); Lundt (loaned to Louisville City FC).

Position group overview: Richey and Tytoń top FC Cincinnati's depth chart while Edwards, whose acquisition was announced Monday, seems to be in line to push the group and perhaps make the No. 3 spot more competitive. Lundt was loaned to Louisville City FC, the club announced Tuesday.

Richey and Tytoń were quality shot-stoppers in 2019. Richey, the projected backup in 2019, overtook Tytoń and proved he was a starting-caliber goalkeeper. Despite some struggles in his first season at FC Cincinnati, the freakishly athletic Tytoń also proved his worth as he retook starting honors while Richey was injured. Yes, FC Cincinnati allowed the most goals ever in a single MLS season but that was hardly a consequence of poor goalkeeping. This is the one position where FC Cincinnati didn't need to tinker in the offseason. The fight to claim the No. 1 goalkeeping spot should be the most entertaining competition in the team this preseason.

Defenders

Returning players: Kendall Waston, Greg Garza, Maikel van der Werff, Mathieu Deplagne, Nick Hagglund, Andrew Gutman, Logan Gdula, Hassan Ndam.

New acquisitions: Zico Bailey, Tom Pettersson, Saad Abdul-Salaam.

Departed: Forrest Lasso, Justin Hoyte, Alvas Powell.

Overview: Defending is a chore for all 11 players on the field, but it's down to the fullbacks and center backs to deal with the trickiest moments and opposition players. In 2019, no FC Cincinnati player was good enough in this phase of the game. Maybe a one-off duel in a specific match went well for various players over the course of the season, but the body of work clearly showed this group didn't mesh until it was far too late. Playing out of the back was always an adventure, too, which is something to watch in preseason.

When the offseason came, General Manager Gerard Nijkamp addressed the back line first. The key and most interesting addition is Saad Abdul-Salaam, an Ohio-native and proven MLS commodity at right fullback. At 6-foot-4, Abdul-Salaam is the second-tallest defender in the team (Waston is 6-foot-5). With 11 career assists, Abdul-Salaam has shown an aptitude for joining the attack. He can play with the ball at his feet and shouldn't overlooked because of his role as a depth player with MLS Cup champion Seattle Sounders last year.

Bailey is young, promising and has a fantastic attitude. Pettersson is a veteran of Europa League competition. He didn't reach that level of European football by mistake. Neither player has any MLS seasoning.

FC Cincinnati believes the back line will be improved across the board. The club now has a deeper group and one with multiple players at each position. Unlike last year, they have all right-footed players for the right side of the defense and all left-footed players for the opposite side. That will make playing out of the back easier, and that's going to be a core concept for the group to master. They didn't have it mastered in 2019.

The returning backs have as much to prove as the new ones. In sum, this group needs to take big steps forward, and quickly.

Midfielders

Returning: Frankie Amaya, Caleb Stanko, Allan Cruz, Joseph-Claude Gyau, Tommy McCabe, Caleb Stanko.

New acquisition: Haris Medunjanin.

Departed: Victor Ulloa, Corben Bone, Roland Lamah, Nazmi Albadawi.

Other: Jimmy McLaughlin (on trial in preseason), Eric Alexander (waived midseason 2019).

Overview: The midfield was a mixed bag in 2019. On the encouraging end of the spectrum was Allan Cruz, who led the team in goals (seven) despite only appearing in 22 matches.

The downside of the midfielders was that a lot of the defensive breakdowns that led to the MLS-worst 75 goals conceded started in the midfield area. And beyond Cruz, there was almost zero tangible offensive end product for their work.

Medunjanin's addition to the group is absolutely crucial. It changes the trajectory of the 2020 season because of his skillful passing and leadership qualities. Last year, No. 1 over SuperDraft pick Frankie Amaya was principally leaning on the wisdom of veteran defenders to guide him through his first pro season. Now, he'll have a player at his position to turn to. And Medunjanin should have a few things to teach Amaya and the rest of the locker room. He boasts 60 senior national team caps for the Bosnian national team and 29 assists for Philadelphia Union over three seasons.

The question marks around the midfielders are balanced out by the abundant optimism resulting from Medunjanin's arrival.

Forwards

Returning: Darren Mattocks, Kekuta Manneh, Rashawn Dally.

New acquisitions: Yuya Kubo, Brandon Vazquez.

Outgoing: Fanendo Adi, Emmanuel Ledesma.

Overview: This is a position that is in flux and has some question marks. Ultimately, the group looks to be more potent than the forwards of 2019. The big question is whether or not that's good enough to push FC Cincinnati into the playoff picture.

Of the known MLS commodities mentioned above, FC Cincinnati returns a grand total of eight combined goals between Manneh (four), Mattocks (three) and Dally (one) from the forward position.

Almost as many goals are on their way out of the club via the recent departures of Adi (one goal) and Ledesma (six goals). Adi was an expensive bust in 2019, and probably in 2018, too.

Ledesma, on the other hand, proved himself worthy of the MLS stage. In the end, he isn't with FCC in 2020 because Ledesma and the club couldn't agree on the dollar value of his worth. He could have done a job for Cincinnati for years to come but supporters will be left to wonder about the fan favorite.

There's a great deal of excitement around the acquisition of Vazquez, who head coach Ron Jans thinks could surprise pundits this season. If FC Cincinnati's going to make a serious push for the playoffs deep into the season, Vazquez will have to deliver on the potential Jans sees.

To Vazquez's credit, he's highly motivated after playing behind Josef Martinez at Atlanta United the last three years.

Then there's Kubo, the new designated player. He's a decorated goal scorer and Japan international. He wasn't exactly tearing up the Belgian top flight this season at KAA Gent, though. A hangover effect that carries into this spring and summer could be disastrous.

There are always the fears Kubo will need extra time to adapt to MLS, the travel, the diverse climates of the United States, etc. On a designated-play contract, Kubo's being paid well enough, so FC Cincinnati's personnel brain trust obviously believes this is a player that can make a big and immediate impact.

There's room for improvement and proving pundits wrong, but this group of scorers looks considerably more promising than the group that started out 2019 for FC Cincinnati.