Everton favourites to return to D2

No team is massively better than the rest in this division. Everton have the joint best midfield in the league and are solid throughout with stacks of depth. Sunderland in second, are a bit weaker in midfield and lack a little depth compared to their rivals. Liege are a classic top and tail team, a 91 rated attacker can wreak havoc with no other team having a keeper to match. Flamengo can match Everton in midfield and have a broadly similar team to them.

A rating of 222 is needed to survive D2 which perhaps shows how D2 has moved on recently with D3 dropping half a point across the board. Tottenham, West Ham , and Bremen can all use a 90 rated attacker and any or all can challenge for the playoff but would they simply return to sender ?

Everton look best set for a cup run, with Dnipro and Hoffenheim fancying their chances. 

218.8 was the relegation cut off last season but with the division being weaker we can assume Dnipro should survive. The 3 Italian teams seem to be in the most trouble. Fiorentina promoted but no real strengths, Sassuolo stronger but no depth at all with Sampdoria in a similar position.  Celta seem to be rebuilding but they have a decent attack better than Hoffenheim who rank above them.

  GK DEF MID ATT Top18 Ave ETOT Pre
Everton (R) 89.0 89.0 90.2 89.0 87.0 88.7 222.33 1
Sunderland 89.0 89.5 89.8 89.0 85.0 88.7 222.17 2
Standard Liège 91.0 89.0 88.6 90.0 86.0 88.6 221.82 3
Flamengo 88.0 88.8 90.2 89.0 85.0 88.3 221.77 4
Tottenham Hotspur 88.0 88.3 89.4 90.0 86.0 88.3 221.50 5
West Ham United 89.0 88.3 89.2 90.0 85.0 88.2 221.34 6
Bremen (R) 88.0 89.3 88.2 90.0 85.0 88.2 221.22 7
Málaga CF 89.0 88.8 89.2 89.0 86.0 88.3 221.21 8
Cruzeiro 89.0 88.8 89.2 89.0 85.0 87.9 221.09 9
Southampton (R) 89.0 88.0 88.8 89.0 83.0 87.5 219.93 10
Club Brugge KV (PC) 88.0 88.0 88.6 89.0 84.0 87.5 219.77 11
CSKA Moskva (P) 86.0 88.3 88.8 88.0 86.0 87.7 219.48 12
Lille OSC (PP) 90.0 86.8 88.8 89.0 85.0 87.8 219.29 13
Crystal Palace 88.0 87.0 87.4 90.0 86.0 87.6 218.90 14
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 88.0 87.8 88.2 88.0 86.0 87.5 218.84 15
Hoffenheim 88.0 87.5 88.0 88.0 86.0 87.4 218.48 16
Celta Vigo (R) 88.0 87.3 87.0 89.0 85.0 86.9 218.01 17
Sampdoria 87.0 87.3 87.4 88.0 83.0 86.5 217.32 18
US Sassuolo 88.0 87.3 87.4 88.0 82.0 86.7 217.32 19
ACF Fiorentina (P) 88.0 87.5 87.2 87.0 85.0 86.9 217.07 20