7 undervalued players to erupt in the playoffs.
Olivier Giroud (France)
Position: forward
Scorum Draft price: 9.5
France struggles in attack without Giroud, and the group stage had proved it. Having played only 200 minutes Giroud led the team in shots in the box (5), key passes (5) and penalty area touches (13). These numbers are better than those of Griezmann and Mbappe which makes Giroud one of the best fantasy options flying under the radar.
It is believed that the French were taking it easy in the group stages and will shift into higher gears come the playoffs. They are facing a beatable Argentine side, which struggled regularly at the back and conceded 7 big chances (only Korea, Panama and Tunisia conceded more).
Marcus Berg (Sweden)
Position: forward
Scorum Draft price: 6.5
Berg played the archetypical center forward role very well in the group stages. All his shots were from inside the box (10 out of 10), he has more than a double advantage over any other teammate in penalty area touches (18), and he had 3 big scoring chances. He was just a tad unlucky.
Only 2 teams conceded more shots in the box than Switzerland. On average, they allowed their opponents 10 shots per game - an ideal opportunity for Berg to open his tally, as he is responsible for 37% of all his team’s shots in the box.
Rodrigo Bentancur (Uruguay)
Position: midfielder
Scorum Draft price: 6.0
At the beginning of the tournament, Uruguay struggled getting the ball to Suarez and Cavani. Oscar Tabarez made some changes in his team’s attacking setup introducing Bentancur. This led to the demolition of team Russia and an explosive performance from the midfielder. Rodrigo had 2 shots from inside the penalty area,1 big chance, and only Cavani had more touches inside the box. Portugal are far from solid at the back, so Bentancur will have his chance to shine from his new position in midfield.
David Silva (Spain)
Position: midfielder
Scorum Draft price: 8.5
Silva is one of the unluckiest players of the group stage. Diego Costa and Isco brought home some fantasy returns while Sliva, being their best-attacking player, hadn’t. Silva leads the team in shots (9), opponent’s box touches (15) and only trails Isco in chances created (6 to 7). Spain is coming into their match against Russia as heavy favorites and it provides a perfect opportunity for Silva to get some fantasy points.
Blerim Dzemaili (Switzerland)
Position: midfielder
Scorum Draft price: 6.5
Switzerland doesn’t have a prolific center forward so it fell to Dzemaili to finish his team’s attacks. He leads his team in shots (5) and touches (11) inside opponent’s box. The midfielder had 3 big scoring chances (no other player on his team had more than 1) and he looks equally as good a pick as Shaqiri coming into the playoffs.
Juan Quintero (Colombia)
Position: midfielder
Scorum Draft price: 6.5
Quintero has one interesting record to his name - only he and Coutinho had at least a goal or an assist in their three group stage matches. He is an ideal fantasy pick as James is nursing an injury thus his form being far from ideal. That means that Quintero now dictates the play in the attacking third.
Juan now takes all the set-pieces as well and it shows. He leads his team in key passes (5), three of those resulting in big chances. Also, he and Falcao are joint leaders in shots with 5 a piece.
Jesse Lingard (England)
Position: midfielder
Scorum Draft price: 7.5
It was Lingard, and not Sterling as had been expected, who became the secondary threat after Harry Kane in this English squad. He played as many minutes as Kane and has identical numbers with the star center forward: 6 shots and 11 penalty area touches. Kane has more shots inside the box (5 to 4) and more big scoring chances (4 to 2), but bear in mind that Harry took 2 penalties. Lingard is having a fantastic tournament and was rested against Belgium. Look out for him to replicate same great numbers.
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