Oh my, just had a deja-vu from last season. Allthough I think the additions Phoenix made last season were off slightly better quality.
If Falco makes another addition he will be hard to beat.
the big difference was that Phoenix had a decent team before he made the additions. He was training some players aswell and had a very multi skilled team. The additions he made were also multi skilled and thus he was a huge force down the road.
Here, Falco made a very 1 sided addition. I've got 2 guards with equal or better defense than the one he just added. I'm assuming he'll play SG, because he's worthless as a PG.
Futhermore, Phoenix had a very deep rotation. Falco has:
PG: Ulrap
SG: Kazenbeinas
SF: Subic
PF: Tiber
C: Ivanov
His biggest trouble is that he's got no bench other than Hassan. Not to mention, his youngest player is Ulrap and players start losing skills frequently as of the age of 33. So if Falco promote, it's to demote again next season, because his team isn't build to last long. Ivanov, Subic and Tiber need to be replaced soon, or they'll be worth nothing ( they aren't worth a lot anymore either way...)
Where as i've got a 6 man starting line up, that i can put either way:
Corman - Marichal - De Cloedt - Ottevaere - Baudoux - Bari
i don't need to replace any of them ( i intend on letting Ottevaere's career end in my team and the fact that De Cloedt got selected as Allstar before Ottevaere shows that i can perfectly play without him as starter as the SF spot. I used him as PF for a while with Bari injured and he can play there if needed. He gives me a stretch 4 so i can mix up my tactics). Not to mention, i've got a 9 man rotation. Ostos was a no brainer than he's in my rotation. And J-J Eeckhout and Weibensteiner finally have reached a lvl where they can also defend their positions against opposing back-ups.
So currently, i've got a 9 man rotation and i'm still looking to add another one.
Even if Falco adds another player (which i'd then assume would be a guard or a SF. If not, he'll be very thin stretched in the guard position) his rotation will still be very low. futhermore, ST 3 on a starter is only going to work if you got some guy's who can give him a breather. If not, guards with wages around 40k will have a hard time with him for 3 minutes, but after that, he gets to tired, slipping up on defense aswell as offense. So Falco's got a hole in his starting line up as it stands now. Ulrap has got ST lvl 5 if i recall correctly ( i've seen his skillset before, just didn't save it like i did with the other one) and thus he's in for trouble if he doesn't add another player.
I'm telling you. As it stands right now, I wouldn't bet on Falco as champ. Either he'll lose to me, or he'll lose to SKW/TBS whoever is in the finals. Cause if this is all he's got as a team, then he's got holes all over the place. I know the weakness of his bigs and i know that his SG isn't suited for inside attacks, let alone for playing long minutes.
So i'm still not feeling a lot of pressure from his team right now. I'm looking for the right addition myself. if i find him, i'll get him. if i don't, i'm still confident that my current team can compete for the title. So, we'll see how things go.The only pressure i feel is that if i don't promote, that i might be in some financial trouble going into next season. Marichals expected wage increase really isn't something i want to pay in II, without considering the wage increases of J-J, Mika and Corman