Will West Brom’s strike force carry them to the title?

A huge reliance on a potent strike force has worked well in the past in D3 and West Brom have all the tools to pull off that trick.   They sit well above Zagreb the next best attacking side and Sassulo who pack the back line better than most. They probably should be the top 3 .  The play off teams should be  Roma who lack depth so will need a good start and a similar issue could affect Wolfsburg while both teams are an attacking force.  Udinese and Hoffenheim have more coverage and may have to wait a game or two to make an impact.

To survive in D2 you will need a rating of 221, so other than the top 3 , the rest will struggle if they go up.  Feyenoord  and Fenernahce are an interesting prospect ,strong keeper and attack but lacking elsewhere.  Galatasaray could be consistent all season and should put in a good cup run.

Last season a rating of 218 or less got you relegated no questions asked.  This leaves Newcastle ,Sevilla, Zenit and Napoli in serious trouble unless they can pull off a Dnipro.  Zenit really just need a slightly better attacker,  Napoli have much more work to do in midfield and defence.  Sevilla an attacker could help and Newcastle maybe a better Keeper and defence.

Compared to last season division 3 is half a point weaker across the board. This could lead to a larger selection of playoff teams than usual but won’t really save the weaker teams as even 217.5 is the already the level of the lowest 4 teams with the next worst .7 above them.

  GK DEF MID ATT Top18 Ave ETOT
West Bromwich Albion 88.0 88.5 89.0 91.5 87.0 88.8 222.48
Dinamo Zagreb 89.0 88.3 89.8 89.5 86.0 88.5 221.58
Sassuolo 91.0 89.3 89.5 88.0 86.0 88.8 221.44
AS Roma 88.0 89.0 88.5 89.0 85.0 87.9 220.61
VfL Wolfsburg 89.0 88.3 88.5 89.5 85.0 88.1 220.46
Udinese Calcio 88.0 89.3 89.0 87.5 86.0 88.0 220.36
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 88.0 88.0 89.0 88.5 86.0 87.9 220.01
Galatasaray SK 88.0 88.0 88.8 88.0 87.0 88.0 219.60
Crystal Palace 88.0 87.8 88.5 88.5 86.0 87.8 219.41
Sampdoria 88.0 88.5 87.8 88.0 86.0 87.7 219.08
FK Partizan 88.0 87.5 88.3 88.5 86.0 87.7 219.01
Feyenoord 90.0 87.0 88.0 89.0 86.0 88.0 218.97
Celtic 89.0 87.5 87.8 88.5 85.0 87.6 218.61
Borussia Mönchengladbach 87.0 86.8 89.3 88.0 83.0 86.8 218.40
Hamburger SV 89.0 87.5 87.3 88.5 85.0 87.5 218.21
Fenerbahçe SK 90.0 86.8 87.0 89.5 85.0 87.7 218.18
Newcastle United 87.0 87.0 87.5 88.0 86.0 87.1 217.56
Sevilla 89.0 87.8 87.3 87.0 86.0 87.4 217.55
Zenit Saint Petersburg 89.0 87.3 87.8 86.5 86.0 87.3 217.23
SSC Napoli 88.0 86.5 86.8 87.5 85.0 86.8 216.24