Дэлхийн аваргын уран сэтгэмжийн тоглолтын сүүлийн тойргийн өмнөх зөвлөмж

On Sunday, Spain or Argentina will be the toast of the footballing world — and so will one lucky World Cup Fantasy manager, along with countless others that will have beaten their friends, family and colleagues in mini-leagues across the globe.

There is one round remaining of this summer’s official World Cup Fantasy game, comprising two matches: France vs England in the third-place play-off on Saturday (kick-off 10pm UK time/5pm ET) and the big one on Sunday, Spain vs Argentina in the final (kick-off 8pm UK time/3pm ET) at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

With one final round to go, our fantasy experts Holly Shand and Abdul Rehman discuss strategy for the final ‘matchday’, what they liked and disliked about the game, and what, if anything, Fantasy Premier League could learn from it.

What’s the best way to approach the last matchday of the summer? Target the teams in the final or the third-placed game?

Holly Shand: The third-placed play-off feels like the key game to target for this final round of fantasy action and for fantasy managers we will have the team sheets before Saturday’s 10pm deadline. We often see rotation for these fixtures and with both sides able to play with freedom, it is perhaps the fixture to target from an attacking perspective, making use of those six free transfers.

With eight players per country permitted, it might be advantageous to stack players from the two nations you expect to win their games, with France and Spain the favourites. I’m expecting a tighter game in the final, so I’ll likely stack Spain’s defensive assets given they’ve conceded just one goal all tournament. Then I’ll go big on France attackers — they’ve scored 16 goals and have a leading 120 attempts at goal in this tournament. Kylian Mbappe ($10.5m) will be hoping to take home the Golden Boot as he’s currently tied with Lionel Messi ($10m) on eight goals in the competition.

Abdul Rehman: We have a bit of an advantage with the third-place play off game as we will be able to see the line-ups before deadline.

This game is likely to be a bit more open and I expect to see more goals in this match, and a tighter game in the final, so targeting a mix of teams from both fixtures — defenders from Spain (as they are favourites) and a mix of attackers from France and England.

Also, it’s good to go for a mix of players from all teams if you still have your Maximum Captain booster. I will be using mine in the final and buying mainly Spanish defenders, and mostly England and France attackers. This gives me a better opportunity to grab a big haul — similar to something like the 14-pointer from Pedro Porro ($5.5m) in the semi-final. One thing to note though is that although we will get the line-ups for the third-place play-off before the deadline we may see a lot more reduced minutes for players and a higher chance of fringe players getting some game time.

Who are the best players to give the captain’s armband to?

Shand: I’ve actually saved the Maximum Captain chip for this round of the tournament, where my highest-scoring player will earn double points. I am very much looking forward to this boost given my captaincy fail in the semi-finals, where Mbappe scored one point in the opening game before twisting to England’s Jude Bellingham ($8.3m), who scored two points in the 2-1 defeat to Argentina. However, I only lost out on seven points, with Anthony Gordon’s ($7m) nine points the highest return from the semi-final round in my team. Spain’s Porro was the only player in this round to net a double-digit score, with 14 points for his goal and clean sheet against France.

Captaincy in the third-placed play-off is obviously hugely dependent on the team sheets but Mbappe feels like the standout pick. It’s difficult to look past Messi in the final if you fancy an Argentina win, but if you’re backing Spain to lift the trophy, I’d probably opt for one of their full-backs in Marc Cucurella ($5.1m), or their hero of the last round Porro.

Rehman: For the third-place play off, I would still say the safe bet is Mbappe. Although both teams won’t be as motivated, the Real Madrid forward will no doubt want to cement the Golden Boot. He is currently tied with Messi and will need to score at least one to stand a chance as the Argentinian has four assists to Mbappe’s three. If you fancy an England win, then Harry Kane ($10.5m) and Bellingham are still the standout picks as not only are they the best attackers, they are also likely to play the most minutes.

For the final, Spain are favourites, so my top captaincy pick would be Lamine Yamal ($10.0m) but of course, Messi has to be up there, especially if you are backing Argentina. I would also be tempted to back a Spanish defender like Cucurella or Porro as they have chances of returns at both ends of the pitch.

How has your World Cup Fantasy campaign gone and what are you targeting in the final weekend of the game?

Shand: It went very well for me through the group rounds and the initial knockout stage. I was ranked in the top 10k after the opening round, drafting in Mbappe for 13 points as my 12th man in Round 2 before a wildcard in Round 3 netted me 90 points. The big highlight came in the round of 32, with a clean sweep with the Qualification Booster, and just two players failing to deliver an additional return.

Things did unravel somewhat with the decision to play the Clean Sheet Shield in the round of 16, which failed to make an impact as all of my defenders kept shut-outs anyway. I was sitting around 5k before being overtaken by all the managers playing the shield in the quarter-finals stage, while I managed just one clean sheet and dropped down to 20k. My rank has dropped further to 25k following the semi-final but I am carrying a slender lead in both of my mini leagues, which I’ll be hoping to maintain in this final round.

Rehman: I got off to a great start and was sitting at 3k after the group stages. After a few sub-par matchdays and backing the wrong horses (England and France) in the semi-finals, I am now down to 12k. I also used my Clean Sheet Shield in the round of 16, which yielded me a grand total of zero points! If I’d used it in the quarters, I would have netted 20 points, so it was a fairly big swing and I would have been sitting closer to the top 1k.

This is a really random booster and I hope it is never introduced in Fantasy Premier League (FPL)!

With over 2.5million managers playing, 12k is still a good rank and I will be aiming to get a top-10k finish, which is very possible, especially with the Max Captain booster still in hand. As mentioned earlier, I will target the Spanish defence with at least one Argentine defender and pick the most explosive attackers from England and France. I should be able to land on a double-digit haul this way.

What has been your favourite feature of this summer’s World Cup Fantasy game?

Shand: Scouting Bonus has been my biggest favourite feature in this game: being able to earn an extra two points from a player return if they are less than five per cent owned. Obviously, playing fantasy football and being successful is a massive flex of your footballing knowledge and predictions of games, so to be additionally rewarded with bonus points for picking a differential is a huge ego boost. In addition, it massively impacts the strategy and game play, ultimately breaking the template.

The advantage of the addition of this rule was clear to see in the group stages, with a massive pool of 1,248 players to choose from and realistically, 528 starters in every round of games. It did become a little stale by the quarter-finals stage, where the player pool decreased to around 88 starters, meaning those players that were under five per cent owned were hard to come by and I’m not entirely sure how viable it would be to fit into FPL, with 20 sides across 10 fixtures each gameweek.

Rehman: I didn’t think I would like this aspect of the game but the bonus system is really good and a fairer way to gauge a player’s performance. For example, in this format, forwards get a point for every two shots on target and midfielders get an extra point for every two big chances created or tackles made.

I actually would not mind if this replaced the current bonus system in FPL. It makes the games more enjoyable to watch as you are not counting Defensive Contributions for your defenders or lamenting when your player loses possession, or misses a big chance etc. This wouldn’t really change the core scoring system of the game, which I don’t think needs amending. Metrics like how many shots a player takes or tackles they make are easily trackable and researchable, so would tilt the game more to be skill-based, rather than relying on luck.

I really liked the Scouting Bonus aspect of the game but do not think this would work in FPL. It’s a good feature for a short format but in a season-long game, it wouldn’t work, in my opinion.

What is your biggest gripe with World Cup Fantasy?

Shand: I think a lack of clarity within the game was my biggest bugbear, with little glitches hurting the overall experience for some managers. Firstly, player ownership was rounded at all points, so some players shown as five per owned were just under the barrier and therefore eligible for scouting bonus, while others were just over. The website had its technical difficulties at times, with functionality issues close to deadlines and at the changeover of games, making it hard for managers to make manual substitutions and captaincy changes.

The rules around whether the third-place play-off counted towards the game weren’t clarified until after the tournament had kicked off and there were also times where managers couldn’t make manual captain changes due to their vice captain selections, which was a little frustrating. There were also reports of teams not being fully saved and chip activation discrepancies, too. We also saw qualification booster points not being doubled in the context of captaincy.

Rehman: There were way too many bugs in the game, such as being able to change your captain and make manual subs midway through a live game, and some managers being able to use their boosters twice, to name but a few.

This did really kill the integrity of the game for me, especially with it being the official game of the tournament with over two million managers playing. A lot of the concepts of World Cup Fantasy were good: Scouting Bonus was a good addition and the chips forced you to think differently in terms of strategy, which was refreshing. So it was a shame some managers were able to take advantage of the glitches and gain an unfair advantage.

From an in-game perspective, I really don’t like the fact the third-placed play-off is included in fantasy points. It means that from the semi-finals, none of your players can be eliminated and it makes it a bit too easy. It would have made the game a lot more tactical if only the final was included.

Is there anything that World Cup Fantasy could learn from Fantasy Premier League?

Shand: I’ve found the rules around penalties in World Cup Fantasy quite bizarre. It’s strange how two fantasy games can deal with them completely differently.

In this format, players earn two points for winning a penalty and lose a point for conceding a penalty. I’m not a huge fan of any scoring matrix that takes points away from a player. However, I find it more strange that a player doesn’t lose points for missing a penalty, even though goalkeepers are rewarded for saving, like in FPL.

I suppose a penalty miss for a player can have a huge swing on their points in FPL, particularly if they do get a goal involvement in the game, since the bonus-point system punishes them for the penalty miss. Penalties have been a key topic of this tournament, especially given the high-profile misses from Messi and Mbappe, which has put the scoring matrix under the microscope.

Rehman: I think defenders are a bit neglected in World Cup Fantasy. Midfielders and forwards get extra bonus points, but there are none available for defenders. FPL introduced Defensive Contributions to give defenders a bit more value, so I think something similar to this would be good. The Champions League fantasy game gives defenders an additional point for every three recoveries made and works really well.

I also agree with Holly regarding there being no minus points for a penalty miss. There should definitely be minus points for that, especially when a player gets minus one for conceding a penalty or plus two points for winning one. FPL is very consistent in its scoring system, whereas the World Cup is quite disjointed in that aspect.

What could Fantasy Premier League learn from World Cup Fantasy?

Shand: I did like some of the chips included in the World Cup Fantasy game, with Maximum Captain certainly an interesting one.

When it comes to FPL, captaincy provides the biggest swing towards your gameweek success. Getting it right consistently can absolutely define your season, so the ability to earn maximum points from your captain for one gameweek could be very powerful. In FPL, we consider blank and double gameweeks to be the key times to deploy our chips, and so the swings for this potential chip on captaincy in those weeks becomes even more prevalent.

I did manage to captain my highest-scoring player in each of the final four gameweeks of the last FPL campaign but the introduction of defensive contribution points has meant a broader range of point hauls in any given FPL gameweek.

Rehman: Quite a few, actually. Firstly, as I mentioned above, the World Cup Fantasy bonus points could easily be implemented in FPL.

I also really liked that there were no price changes and pricing increments were not restricted to 0.5m gaps. Price changes force managers into early transfers and can inflate player values, especially during the start of the season. Even something like a price change day just before a deadline would be a great addition in my opinion. Also, having more varied price increments allows players to be priced closer to their actual value.

I wouldn’t make changes to the core scoring of FPL but did like the idea of a Max Captain to potentially replace the Triple Captain chip. My favourite thing about World Cup Fantasy, though, is the deadline at the first kick-off and I would love to see this introduced in FPL. This would give an advantage to those who are patient with their transfers and don’t make early moves.