Welcome to the first marathon preview of the fantasy noob blog. I hope, this information will help you to pick the optimal squads for wc2018.

First of all, let´s figure out the rules of the DFS platform. I will play the season game for the whole World Cup 2018 at the currently biggest European fantasy web-site Fanteam (I believe, Scorum can become a leader here in the nearest future, but currently we don't see the season games here). Fanteam has a different scoring from other DFS platforms.

As usual you have to pick Goalkeepers, Defenders, Midfielders and Attackers in your fantasy team. You have $100 mln to get the best 15 players, from which 4 will sit on the bench and will wait for the chance to substitute your main players in case, that they won't appear on the field. This means, that you will get the points only from 11 players of your main squad. So, you have to choose carefully not to lose the balance between the flexibility of your team and the cost of the the bench.

During the season game at the group stage each fantasy player will have 15 free transfers that he would be able to use at any time. Two additional free transfers will be given before every round of play-offs. In total there will be 23 transfers available to make within the duration of the tournament.

The main differencies of Fanteam scoring are:

  1. impact (you will get +1 point for each player of the team, which will win the match, and will get -1 point, if the team will lose it);
  2. additional point for midfielder or attacker, who plays the full match (started and not subbed). Last season Fanteam had the same scoring for goalkeepers and defenders. And many fantasy players adapted for defending stacks with the scheme 5-3-2 or 5-2-3 as it was the winning strategy. This year the things can change as we have an update on scoring and we will probably see new working schemes on Fanteam;
  3. fantasy assists;
  4. special scoring for penalties at play-offs;
  5. additional 2 points for the man of the match awarded by Official FIFA

You can learn more about the scoring on Fanteam wc2018 rules page.

Your strategy needs a strategy

The preparation took me some days of analyzing the team news, the results of friendlies and qualifiers, statistics of teams and players. Recently I bought the membership at Fantasy Football Scout, which I found very helpful. It gives you an access to the expanded statistics, that helps you to make the right decisions and also to dig into numbers for those, who like it.

I plan to make 3 entries into the season tournament ($22 each entry). Now it is less than one hour before the deadline and I'm currently finalizing my squads.

The main rules, that I follow for my 3 teams:

  1. To keep as much transfers as I can at the early stage in order to be flexible in play-offs -> this leads us to the second rule.
  2. To pick as much players from the top teams, which I expect to go far in the tournament, as I can afford based on the budget.
  3. To avoid players, which will play against each other at one stage. Not to lose the points due to the impact factor.
  4. Try to pick set piece takers to expect more point returns from my team.
  5. To have at least 1-2 bench players, who will get their play time.
  6. To take into consideration not only goals, assists, attacking and defensive statistics, but also game time of players and how often are they being substituted.
  7. Optimize for 3-4-3, 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 schemes in order to benefit from additional points from whole match players (only attackers and midfielders will get bonus).

Best picks for the season game

Based on these rules I decided to pick some teams to form the base of my fantasy teams. Below I will talk a little bit more about best fantasy assets from these national teams. In the brackets I will add the current price of the player on Fanteam season game.

Uruguay

Is a solid team and the main favorite of Group A. Luis Suarez (10.0) and Edinson Cavani (9.5) are the main targets in attack. Despite more goals from Cavani in Qualifying, I consider Suarez as a better fantasy asset, as he seems to be involved in more attacks and also get asissts of his team. Suarez is also a penalty taker.

The defence is solid and can get some clean sheets at the group stage. Favorably priced Fernando Muslera (5.5) and centre-back leader Diego Godin (6.0) should be the best options.

Spain

After the last news about the replacement of coach it is hard to tell, what to expect from this team. However, all teams in Group B know, how to play good in defense and it can lead to some 1-0 or 0-0 matches in this group.

In this case I suggest to think of picking Jordi Alba (6.5), Sergio Ramos (6.5) or David de Gea (6.5). 

The best player on the front is David Silva (9.0), who is involved in most of the attacks of Spain team. Francisco Isco (10.0) can bring you good point returns, but you should take into consideration two things: from one side he is not 100% nailed, from the other side he is a threat even from the bench.

France

France have the 2nd best betting odds for clean sheet in the first round. In the situation when Djibril Sidibe (5.5) (will likely miss the 1st match) compete with Benjamin Pavard (5.0) and Benjamin Mendi (6.5) compete with Lucas Hernandez (5.5) the best solution for the season tournament is to adapt for Hugo Lloris (6.5) or Samuel Umtiti (6.5). For those, who like to risk, Pavard can be a good option, as he played very high in the last matches and have good attacking potential.

The most attractive attacking assets are Antoine Griezman (11.0) and Kylian Mbappe (9.5).

Denmark

Well known Tottenham leader Cristian Eriksen (8.5) is the main attacking threat in Denmark team.

Argentina

Lionel Messi (12.5) is the standout option. Nicolas Taglafico (5.0) and Nicolas Otamendi (6.5) can bring you good points in defence.

I don't belive too much in Argentina at play-off stage and haven't adopted many of my teams with these players in season tournament and in daily fantasy.

Brazil

There are a lot of options here. Junior Neymar (11.5), Gabriel Jesus (10.5) are no doubt picks. Personally I prefer to have more cheap Jose Paulinho (7.5) over Borges Willian (9.0) and Philippe Coutinho (10.0) in my teams. Paulinho is in the form and has scored as many goals in Qualifying as Neymar did (6).

In defence you can choose between Becker Alisson (6.5), Silva Danilo (6.0) and more attacking Silva Marcelo (7.0).

Germany

Current Germany team is a dark horse for me in the question of fantasy assets. I optimized some teams with Thomas Muller (10.5), Joshua Kimmich (7.0) and Jonas Hector (5.5).

Belgium and England

Both teams should benefit from their to matches in the group. We can expect goals and cleen sheets from Belgium and England.

The main picks in attack: Romelu Lukaku (10.5), Harry Kane (11.0) and Raheem Sterling (8.5), who should play the second forward in 3-5-2.

Thomas Meunier (6.5) looks like the best attacking defender of the World Cup 2018. From England side Kieran Trippier (5.5) is my main option based on his high position on right flank and assist potential from corners. Jordan Pickford (6.0) or John Stones (5.5) can also be good assets. Stay away from Danny Rose (5.5) and Ashley Young (6.0) as they compete for one game spot on the left flank.

Poland

My only options here are Robert Lewandowski (10.0), who can continue with at least 1-2 goals each match, and Piotr Zielinski (7.0).

Colombia

Jamez Rodriguez (8.5) is the leader of Colombia attacks and looks like the biggest point hitter there.

Low/medium budget options

Defence:

  1. Kasper Schmeichel (5.5) and Henrik Dalsgaard (4.0) – both from Denmark
  2. Sime Vrsaljko (5.5) and Danijel Subasic (6.0) – Croatia
  3. Stephan Lichtsteiner (5.0) and penalty taker Ricardo Rodríguez (5.5) – Switzerland
  4. Robin Olsen (5.0) and penalty taker Andreas Granqvist (5.0) – Sweden

Attack:

  1. Paolo Guerrero (7.0), Edison Flores(6.5) and Christian Cueva (6.5) – Peru
  2. Gylfi Sigurdsson (7.0) – Iceland
  3. Marcus Berg (7.0) - Sweden
  4. Luka Modric (6.5) – Croatia
  5. Xherdan Shaqiri (7.5) – Switzerland