Division 4 first amongst equals

Division 4 the key stats.

 

When we look at this division we can see immediately that there is much less difference from the division above. The average rating is 86.4 compared to 86.7 in D3.   If we use a rule of thumb that you would need a rating of just above 86 to survive in D3 you can see that the vast majority of clubs down to SC Internacional have the potential to gain promotion.

This makes this the most open division so far.

	GK	Def	Mid	Att	Top15	Top21	Average
Southamoton	89	87	89	89	87	83	88.2	2
West Ham	87	88	88	88	87	86	87.333	12
Dynamo Moscow	88	87	89	87	86	85	87	3
Genoa	89	88	88	89	86	82	87	7
Malaga	87	87	89	88	87	83	86.833	4
Torino	89	87	88	89	86	82	86.833	5
Udinese	87	87	87	88	87	85	86.833	11
Montpellier	88	87	87	88	86	85	86.833	14
Celta Vigo	87	87	88	86	85	82	86.6	1
West Brom	87	86	87	88	86	85	86.5	8
AZ	88	87	87	88	85	84	86.5	17
Dnipro	88	87	87	87	86	83	86.333	13
Atalanta	87	87	87	88	85	83	86.167	10
River Plate	87	87	87	87	86	83	86.167	15
Sc Internacional	87	87	87	87	86	82	86	6
Cologne	88	87	87	89	85	80	86	9
Espanyol	87	87	87	88	86	78	85.5	18
Chievo	85	87	87	87	84	82	85.333	19
Levante	87	86	88	87	84	80	85.333	20
Hellas Verona	85	85	87	86	83	82	84.667	16

The current position is shown to the right of the table. It is probably no surprise that 6/7 of the highest rated teams  occupy the automatic promotion and play off spots , even early doors.

They have to a large extent chosen to sacrifice quantity for quality, probably a good idea in this division.  West Ham and Dynamo Moscow are an exception to that and if they can keep up early in the season they will be in a position to challenge the out and out favourites Southamton.

It is no surprise to find teams of a similar build Udinese and Montpellier also begining the season well .  There is such a similarity from then on down to even Levante that it is hard to say how a particular team will do statistically , which means that manager skill and the vagueness of injuries will have more effect.

It has to be a concern for Espanyol,  Chievo , Levante that they are already struggling and have little in the wasy of back up to push into the front line.

Hellas Verona though are rather a sad sight and I can't see them surviving ,