Those who are first shall be last? Early season form goes against the stats in a much tight division.
Division 4 looks to be much tougher this year and overall is almost 0.5 point stronger overall compared to last season. It is aso has pretty much the same range as Division 3 , even with a lower average.
Bremen would seem to be the out and out favourites with a strong attacking line, Suarez should be able to beast most defences in this league.
Santos and Dynamo Moscow are well balanced teams, as are Boca even with a little less depth. If 218 is the cut off for D3 survival then any one of 14 teams has a chance to do well with little reinforcement , so the challenge is to get out of the division. West Brom and Sampdoria will be interesting to watch as while they have quality , they certainly don’t have quantity.
Atalanta or Villareal could be good cup teams this season .
Lower down , last season gave us no clues as to what is needed to survive but looking back a couple of seasons 217.5 seemed to be the cut off but with a half a point up grade that could mean 218 , so we could have 14 teams in the hunt for promotion with 6 others scrapping it out for relegation.
Leicester are at least in theory the lowest ranked side, but 2 decent wins so far leaves them in a good place. Remember last season the top 2 were 12th and 17th ranked.
Malaga have a decent attack but will suffer in possession and will let in goals, Spartak a stronger overall team but lacking depth. PSV ok in midfield and defence but keeper and attack could prove costly. River Plate and Fenerbache are tied with near identical sides.
I would expect a big differential from these stats , as last season with some big shocks in the promoted and relegated teams, no one is safe.
GK | DEF | MID | ATT | Top18 | Ave | ETOT | Epr | |
Werder Bremen | 88.0 | 88.5 | 90.0 | 91.0 | 87.0 | 88.9 | 222.95 | 1 |
Santos FC | 88.0 | 88.3 | 89.3 | 89.5 | 87.0 | 88.4 | 221.18 | 2 |
Dynamo Moskva | 88.0 | 88.3 | 89.0 | 89.0 | 87.0 | 88.3 | 220.65 | 3 |
Boca Juniors | 89.0 | 88.0 | 88.5 | 88.5 | 86.0 | 88.0 | 219.73 | 4 |
Rubin Kazan | 89.0 | 88.3 | 88.3 | 88.0 | 86.0 | 87.9 | 219.40 | 5 |
Swansea City | 88.0 | 87.8 | 88.8 | 88.0 | 86.0 | 87.7 | 219.28 | 6 |
Villarreal CF | 88.0 | 88.5 | 87.3 | 88.0 | 87.0 | 87.8 | 218.80 | 7 |
West Bromwich Albion | 91.0 | 88.5 | 87.8 | 87.5 | 83.0 | 87.6 | 218.76 | 8 |
Sporting CP | 88.0 | 88.0 | 87.8 | 88.0 | 85.0 | 87.4 | 218.56 | 9 |
Atalanta BC | 88.0 | 87.8 | 88.0 | 87.5 | 87.0 | 87.7 | 218.48 | 10 |
ACF Fiorentina | 88.0 | 87.5 | 87.8 | 88.0 | 86.0 | 87.5 | 218.28 | 11 |
Athletic Club | 87.0 | 87.5 | 88.3 | 87.5 | 86.0 | 87.3 | 218.24 | 12 |
Sampdoria | 87.0 | 87.3 | 88.0 | 88.0 | 86.0 | 87.3 | 218.16 | 13 |
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | 88.0 | 87.8 | 88.0 | 87.0 | 85.0 | 87.2 | 217.91 | 14 |
River Plate | 87.0 | 87.5 | 87.0 | 88.5 | 85.0 | 87.0 | 217.77 | 15 |
Fenerbahçe SK | 87.0 | 87.0 | 87.5 | 88.5 | 85.0 | 87.0 | 217.77 | 16 |
PSV | 87.0 | 87.8 | 87.8 | 87.0 | 85.0 | 86.9 | 217.59 | 18 |
Spartak Moskva | 87.0 | 87.3 | 87.5 | 88.0 | 83.0 | 86.6 | 217.40 | 18 |
Málaga CF | 87.0 | 87.3 | 87.0 | 88.0 | 86.0 | 87.1 | 217.36 | 19 |
Leicester City | 87.0 | 87.3 | 86.8 | 86.5 | 85.0 | 86.5 | 216.07 | 20 |