Euro 2016 Fantasy Football – Group F
Even a cursory glance at the teams stats from Group F’s participants is extremely telling. Austria spread the workload around and contribute (not immodestly it should be noted) as a team. Conversely, Portugal (Ronaldo), Iceland (Sigurdsson) and Hungary (Dzsudzsák) are incredibly reliant on a single player’s output. This should make it rather easy to cherry-pick fantasy-worthy members for our squads however, as you’ll see below, Austria’s numbers have been almost too good to dismiss. The team vs individual dynamic poses a fascinating quandary.
For what it’s worth, I can see Austria upsetting the apple-cart (other online shopping carts are available) and pipping favourites Portugal to the summit. Sigurdsson and his Icelandic buddies should have enough to keep an uninspiring Hungary down at the bottom.
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Austria
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]
[/three_fourth]Famous People: Sigmund Freud, Mozart, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Adolf Hitler
Fact: The sewing machine was invented in 1818 by Josef Madersperger.
Football Alumni: Toni Polster
Austria were impressive in qualifying, demolishing a group that contained Russia and Sweden, and could be one of Euro 2016’s surprise packages. The team’s scoring average (2.2 per game) and goals against (0.5 p/g) are better than any of their Group F opponents. They clocked almost double the attempts on target (81) of Portugal (41). As a few interesting asides, Marcel Koller’s team are ranked 10th by FIFA which is their highest ever; and their first ever international was a 5-0 tonking of Hungary. Don’t be too shocked if that happens again.
Marc Janko (FWD – 7.5) was Austria’s top scorer with 7 goals in qualifying, chipping in with a couple of assists. The FC Basel talisman is a good old fashioned poacher who, when not on the shoulder of the last defender, is sniffing around the six-yard box for a tap-in. He represents a decent value striker in a group he should expect to do well in.
Marko Arnautovic (FWD – 7.0) will be familiar to FPL folk, although his classification as a forward here may surprise some and lessen the Stoke City star’s appeal. Mobile around the penalty area, he’ll still be a threat and have plenty of suitors. He didn’t cover himself with glory against Holland the other day, but he did nearly cover Kenny Tete with saliva.
David Alaba (MID – 7.0) has a fierce left foot and a keen eye for goal, contributing 4 times to the score sheet helping his team get to France. Likely to be one of Austria’s more popular fantasy choices, the Bayern midfielder is usually on free-kicks, penalties, corners and maybe even laundry duty.
Martin Harnik (FWD – 7.0) won’t be high on many of your shopping lists, but with 3 goals, 4 assists and rather tantalisingly, 17 shots on target (more than anyone from these four teams, even Cristiano Ronaldo ‘only’ had 16) he could catch a lot of people off guard and be, whisper it quietly, a differential.
Christian Fuchs (DEF – 6.0) will be, by the time the tournament starts, one of only 6 players left from Leicester’s Premier League winning squad. The left back was fantastic for the Foxes and there’s no reason to think the captain will let anyone down as part of an international back four that are every bit as tight.
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Hungary
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]
[/three_fourth]Famous People: Franz Liszt, Houdini, Atilla the Hun
Fact: In 1946 the world’s highest denomination was issued; the one quintillion pengo note.
Football Alumni: Ferenc Puskas
It’s hard to know how Hungary qualified for this their first major tournament since Mexico ’86. Their top scorers got 2 goals, and their top assisters got 2 assists. They averaged barely over a goal a game (1.17) and conceded nearly as many (0.83). They often play with 2 defensive midfielders protecting a back-four with just Ádám Szalai running around up front alone, looking for his loved ones. The team were impressive in the play-off against Norway, yes, but it’s slim pickings fantasy-wise.
Balázs Dzsudzsák (MID – 6.5), besides being a game changing triple-word score in Scrabble, is the Hungarian captain and likely their only player you’ll need to even consider. Akin to a budget version of David Alaba, the no.7 has a penchant for long-range left foot swingers and is rather handy from set-pieces. Whether his team will be in the tournament long enough for people to learn how to pronounce his name properly is in some doubt however.
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Iceland
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]
[/three_fourth]Famous People: Bjork, Kerry Katona, Peter Andre
Fact: Husavik is the best place in Europe to watch whales. Not to be confused with Group B, which is the best place in Europe to watch Wales.
Football Alumni: Eidur Gudjohnsen
Despite being the most sparsely populated country in Europe, Iceland somehow have two managers. Swede Lars Lagerback and native Heimir Hallgrimsson’s Nordic heroes had been THE fairy-tale football story until some English East Midland team saw to that. Nevertheless, the team will surely play with a freedom envied by other nations who have far more to lose. Pundits will pat Iceland on the head and say ‘they’ve already won’, but a team led by Gylfi Sigurðsson should never be underestimated. Showing a ruthless efficiency they qualified with a meagre 39 attempts on target, yet chimed in with goal stats second only to Austria in this group. At 37, not much will be expected of Eiður Guðjohnsen but it’s hard to begrudge the local legend finally getting some limelight on the International stage.
Gylfi Sigurdsson (MID – 8.0) is under no circumstances to be confused with the other Sigurdsson in Iceland’s Euro squad. One is listed as a 5.5 defender, the other isn’t. If that saved even only one person from smashing a frozen Sweet & Sour Battered Chicken over their heads in abject despair, it was worth it. With 6 goals from 11 goalbound shots, and 3 assists, it’s no secret the Swansea playmaker’s form is essential to Iceland’s chances of squeezing into the knockout rounds.
Kolbeinn Sigthorsson (FWD – 7.0) will be unfamiliar to most but the former Ajax player, now at Nantes, has rattled in 20 goals in 39 internationals. Surely worth looking at, at the very least, for the game against Hungary. In the last fortnight the striker has netted in wins over Greece and Liechtenstein. If that doesn’t get your pulse racing then I quite frankly give up.
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Portugal
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]
[/three_fourth]Famous People: Jose Mourinho… and… umm…..
Fact: At 17,185m, Vasco da Gama is Europe’s longest bridge.
Football Alumni: Eusebio
“Portugal is not a one-man team,” manager Fernando Santos recently said, presumably forgetting about last year’s Ronaldo-less 2-0 home defeat to the Cape Verde Islands. To be fair to Santos, Portugal barely looked like a team even with him. While 7 wins from 8 makes impressive reading, the 11 goal count total does not. In a weak group Portugal claimed all their victories by a single goal, hardly restoring confidence after their opening 1-0 humbling by visitors Albania. The future does looks promising for the 2004 finalists. Joao Mario (23), Andres Gomes (22) and recent Bayern Munich recruit Renato Sanches (18) should all be more than ready to step up to the plate for the pan-European 2020 event, but this year could be too soon, but CR7’s troops should nonetheless be able to progress from this group.
Cristiano Ronaldo (FWD – 12.0) realistically has no peers at this tournament, but don’t tell Zlatan that. Whether that will translate into a value for money fantasy investment remains to be seen. Whereas Real Madrid have other virtuoso’s that will keenly pick up the slack for Cristiano, the Portuguese superstar will have to be the composer, conductor and orchestra in France. His 5 goals were almost half of his team’s qualification tally, and his 0 assists suggest he only trusts himself to get the job done. 12.0 is a heck of a chunk of your fantasy budget, but then this is Ronaldo.
Rui Patricio (GK – 5.0) and Cédric (DEF – 4.5) could be good value defensive pickups for a team that seems unlikely to be involved in high-scoring games. Southampton right-back Cédric wasn’t the smash hit that FPL fans were hoping for at the start of the season, but should prove a reliable bet, and Sporting Lisbon keeper Patricio will hope at the very least to pick up a couple of clean sheets in a group that, Austria aside, is rather goal shy.
Thanks for reading Euro 2016 Fantasy Football – Group F. This article was written by Bryan Munich
Breaking News…..
A great member of the FF247 family has retired.
Chopper I hope whatever path you chose I wish it works out.
Potty
Great is a stretch, although he did keep the toilets unclogged and smelling well. Good thing I don’t drink coffee, he always made it after he got done cleaning the bathrooms. 😉
Euro Fantasy Tips for Matchday 1. Euro 2016 is just around the corner so we’ve compiled the bookies odds on which teams have the best chance of scoring and keeping a clean sheet.
We will also look at strategies that specifically apply to the Euro Fantasy game, including rotating players and captains throughout the Matchday.
Before we get things underway, we’d like to remind you to join our Euro Fantasy League. The league pin is 47133KPN and you can read more about the prizes up for grabs here.
Goalscorer Tips For Matchday 1
(Odds To Score 2+ Goals – SkyBet)
Team Odds Implied Chance
France 1.53 65.36%
Spain 1.62 61.73%
Germany 1.67 59.88%
Poland 1.91 52.36%
Austria 1.91 52.36%
Portugal 1.91 52.36%
England 2.20 45.45%
Switzerland 2.25 44.44%
Croatia 2.38 42.02%
Belgium 2.88 34.72%
The bookies have handed their backing to the host nation and rate their chances to put more than two goals past Romania at 65%. Spain and Germany trail narrowly behind ahead of their opening fixtures against Ukraine and Czech Republic respectively.
Poland were the highest scoring team (33) during the Euro Qualifiers and are expected to continue their run of goalscoring form with a 52% chance of putting more than two past Northern Ireland.
Portugal and Austria are the favourites to progress from Group F and the bookmakers rate their chances the same as Poland’s ahead of their fixtures against Iceland & Hungary.
Elsewhere, England – who were the second highest scoring team (31) during the Qualifiers – come in with a 45% implied chance of scoring over two goals. Although Russia kept a clean sheet in 50% of their qualifying matches so it’ll be a tough opener for the Three Lions.
Captaincy Rotation For Euro Fantasy
Day Captain Stick
1 Giroud, Griezmann 9 points (goal + assist)
2 Kane, Bale 9 points (goal + assist)
3 Lewandowski, Muller 6 points (goal/clean sheet)
4 Ibrahimovic, De Bruyne 6 points (goal/clean sheet)
5 Ronaldo, Janko N/A
As you probably already know, EuroFantasy’s rules are slightly different to FPL in that they allow you to change your captaincy throughout the week. As Matchday 1 includes five days of fixtures, this means you’ll have five tries to secure as many points as possible.
The stick column highlights the amount of points we recommend you should settle with should your player score them. For example, if you captain Giroud on Day 1 and he scores less than 9 points, we recommend that you change him to somebody else for the following day.
Ensuring that you have strong captaincy options for at least three of the five opening days will be essential to your success. This is something a lot of casuals won’t cotton on to and will give you a substantial advantage in any work mini-leagues.
Clean Sheet Tips For Matchday 1
(Odds To Keep A Clean Sheet – SkyBet)
Team Odds Implied Chance
France 1.44 69.44%
Spain 1.80 55.56%
Switzerland 1.80 55.56%
Poland 1.83 54.64%
Portugal 1.83 54.64%
Austria 2.00 50.00%
Germany 2.00 50.00%
England 2.10 47.62%
Sweden 2.38 42.02%
Croatia 2.38 42.02%
The bookies are once again behind the host nation, giving them a 66% chance of keeping a clean sheet against Romania on Friday. This is somewhat surprising due to the fact the French defence has been forced to deal with a number of injuries and is far from it’s strongest.
Spain (who conceded just three goals in qualifying) and Switzerland are placed second with a 55% implied chance of keeping a clean sheet when they face Czech Republic and Albania respectively in their opening fixtures.
Poland and Portugal are both handed a 54% chance of keeping a clean sheet. The former conceded just five goals during qualification and looked defensively stubborn in their 1-0 defeat to England. Poland face European new-boys Northern Ireland, having conceded 10 goals in qualifying – five of which came against World Champions Germany.
Elsewhere, Austria (vs. Hungary) and Germany (vs. Ukraine) are both given a 50% chance, both nations showed in qualifying their defensive qualities with Austria securing six clean sheets, shipping five goals. Germany also kept five clean sheets, but conceded nine.
England, who conceded just three goals in qualifying, face Russia in their opening fixture and Roy Hodgson’s men will be looking to keep a third successive shutout at the Stade Velodrome after clean sheets against Australia and Portugal.
Defender Rotation For Euro Fantasy:
Day Players From Stick
1 FRA, ROM 6 points (clean sheet)
2 ALB, SWI, WAL, SLO, ENG, RUS 6 points (clean sheet)
3 TUR, CRO, POL, NIR, GER, URK 6 points (clean sheet)
4 SPA, CZE, ROI, SWE, BEL, ITA 6 points (clean sheet)
5 AUS, HUN, POR, ICE N/A
As well as allowing the rotation of captaincies like we previously mentioned, EuroFantasy also allow you to substitute out players who under performed for players who are yet to play. The table above shows which teams play on which day, and the amount of points you should stick with.
Strategically selecting your defence so that it enables you to rotate out players who under perform will again be pinnacle to your success in this competition. First and foremost, ensure you have selected goalkeepers that play on different days. If your keepers play on the same day you’ll be unable to rotate them.
In addition to this, a logical tactic would be to have your three starting defenders playing on either day 1, 2 or 3 and your two substitute defenders playing on either day 4 or 5.
Don’t shy away from benching your Portugal/Spain/Belgium defenders in favour of your Switzerland/Croatia/England defenders, as you WILL be rotating them out if they under perform.
If you have prepared correctly, most of your players should have a run out in your XI each Matchday as this will fully take advantage of EuroFantasy’s substitution rule.
Great work from Jamie eh Silvers! At least credit him for it 😉 @fplbet
This isn’t Silvers’ handiwork?
Thanks Silvers though. And Jamie.
Cheers for this Jamie and Silver it’s good info.
Yes sorry Jamie credit where credit due :thumbup:
Morning fellas. Just had a look at my team and realised I got the wrong Romanian. I thought it was Chipciu that had gotten the goals over the last few friendlies but it was Stanciu. So I’m now thinking of downgrading Ronaldo and Chester to Lewandowski and Strinic to upgrade Chipciu to Stanciu. Is it worth it?
Silvers, where did you land on your Ronaldo question? It’s got me thinking of selling him now haha
Matt
Who else have you got in Chipciu’s price range that you could od a direct swap?
Hey GP. At 4.5 mil I don’t see many mids that will start.
Morning Matt if Rafa Silva starts tonight I might throw him in
Is he 4.5 mil? I looked at him but wasn’t sure if he would play.
He is 4.5m but keep an eye on the game tonight I thk he will start 1st game
Yeah just looked him up again now. I’m a but wary whether it’s worth bringing in a player that might only get one game.
I don’t think we are getting much value at 4.5 so I may just be sticking a bench filler in at that price.
Currently Artur Yusopov for me. A bit of a wildcard being as he only got called up to cover an injury to Denisov and was on holiday in France at the time of the call up!
I considered a 4.5 filler but I would kind of prefer having starters that might do something. That’s why I considered the upgrade to 5.5 mid because Lewandowski is not bad of a downgrade and Strinic seems to be a nailed on 4.0 defender who plays on a tight group where many goals might not be scored.
Sounds good then Matt. Couldn’t talk you out of that at all.
Fingers crossed for Strinic.
Cheers GP. Didn’t think Lewandowski was a bad replacement haha
who would you prefer a Romanian 5.5 mid or a Swedish 5.5 mid?
Probably Forsberg from Sweden.
Although even up at 6.0 there isn’t a lot to get excited about which is why I like the train of thought that the least spent on that fifth midfielder the better.
Yeah 6.0 doesn’t excite too much like I had Brady but with this injury concern I don’t want to risk it. Forsberg is the one I was definitely thinking of. Do you know who would be most nailed on in the Irish midfield? McCarthy could be a good pick but McClean is probably more attacking. Ireland probably have a better chance of finishing 3rd than Sweden do.
I agree with GP, we’ve a load more better valued defenders in the 4.5 to 5.5 bracket range so losing out on that fifth mid doesn’t concern me too much, I can see my team ending up with a back four by the end of most match days.
Cheers Andy. It’s just my confidence in Ronaldo isn’t that good so I’m really considering selling him. Then using that extra .5 Mil elsewhere so maybe in Chester to a 5.0 Mil defender could be the better option.
Ahhh, too bad the other Ciu wasn’t Daleciu instead of Stanciu. Chip and Dale would have caused me to break out the oil and hit the beach.
Matt, hope that helps
Hahahaha yeah I would have brought in them both.
Excellent read Bry and it looks like it has great reviews.
“As ever, very humourous and with a tip or two as well
What’s not to like?” – The Scottish Times
“Great article and confirmed what I was think” – Flash and Pico blog
“Morning all entertaining as ever Bry I thk you could be right “. – Jamie fplbet
I’m ot to keen on having Giroud in my team it doesn’t look right any other suggestions ?
Lukaku ? :hippo:
For 8.5 and below Giroud looks the best option, he’s got form, good fixtures and a great haircut, what’s not to like.
What’s to like , you tell me but I thk your right I might have to put a bag on his head.
What the :say-what:
I hope the UEFA site don’t see that, they’ll raise his price tag to 11.0.
Silvers
I think he is going to get a hatful of chances laid on for him.