Too tight to call at the top of D3

In division 3 unless you inherit a D1 team a compromise has to be made.  So in the block of 9 teams down to Ajax you have every variety and combination of strength and weakness that you could encounter.

Zenit while well balanced are reliant on a strong attack and must be favoured to overpower most weaker-keeper teams. Liege have the top an tail approach of the strong keeper decent attack in 2^nd spot along with some depth. Boca are the one trick pony of super strong attacker, little or no depth. The A.I. chooses to punish this approach seeing them as relegation contenders this year.  Hoffenheim are an evenly balanced team with loads of depth very similar to Monaco who sit just below them

Sampdoria sacrifice depth for attack , unlike St Etienne who trade in depth for defence.  Last but not least Ajax with a well balanced starting team lacking depth and a strong keeper.

You would need 221.5 to survive in D2 so other than the top 2 all the rest have plenty to do.

218.4 was the relegation cut off last season and only two teams sit below that level, though if we consider the quality of the teams promoted to D2 that is not a great shock as the quality in D3 has dropped by around 0.25 pt per starter this season.  Even so only Dnipro who are the eternal survivors and Malaga look sure to drop.  Basel are predicted by both the A.I. and myself to also fall but the A.I. thinks Southampton will survive in 14^th replaced by Boca who it predicts will drop.