World Cup: Team Progress

End of game review

The final didn’t go my way in terms of Dream Team points but regardless of that it was a fantastic game to watch. Overall I’m delighted with how my initial plan went as I hardly moved away from it during the tournament. I’m very happy with an overall finish of 1,470 considering I documented everything in advance. It’s now back to reality with the season game where I’ve got an absolute mountain to climb.

Total points: 392
Leaderboard position: 1,470

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End of Semi Finals Review

I’ve been delighted with how the semi finals have panned out for my blog team (now my best team). I’ve pretty much stuck to my plan from day 1 and now the team is in a really strong position. I had a couple of big slices of luck with clean sheets for France and Argentina and goals from Hernandez and Alvarez but that makes up for my slow start with this team.

Total points: 352
Leaderboard position: 1,509
Transfers remaining: 1

Regardless of what happens from here, I’m delighted with the performance of the team and it goes to show the value of having a half decent plan with a short format game like this. If you’re interested to see how the plan developed, I’ve been keeping my spreadsheet up to date at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l3XhGlw7BuM97f2x_NsKhvFYYZT-9tZPFo0yQH-UB5o/

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Day 17 & 18 Review

Day 17

Day 17 didn’t have a huge effect on my team with only Olmo in action. Spain ended up crashing out to Morocco. Portugal had a brilliant result against Switzerland but I can’t imagine many people took a punt on Ramos to pick up his hat trick points.

Day 18 – first quarter finals

With four Brazil players the first quarter final didn’t go to plan at all. Luckily Neymar did get a goal so bringing him in for today was probably worthwhile. I’m also thankful that I’ve got enough transfers to not cause a problem moving forward with Brazil crashing out. The Argentina v Netherland game started so well with goals from Molina and Messi. Molina only ended up on 4 points despite the goal but at least Messi grabbed star man. This moves my blog team up to 7,839 on the leaderboard with 9 transfers still left. My best team has only 4 transfers remaining and 7 players now eliminated so it will be interesting to see which one finishes higher.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, I’ll bring Mbappe back in for certain. I’m not sure I’ll bring any England players in as that game could go either way. I might bring in a couple of Portugal players as they could have an easier game.

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Day 15 & 16 Review

Day 15

The France game certainly went it my favour with two goals from Mbappe and 5 points for Dembele. It was a shame Hernandez lost his clean sheet points right at the end though. With the majority of people who play the game being England fans, I always tend to take a hit when England play. The clean sheet and goal from Kane put a major dent in my position on the leaderboard.

Day 16

The Croatia V Japan game had very little effect when it came to position on the leaderboard but the Brazil game resulted in a slightly lift for the team. Goals from Richarlison and Vinicius Junior certainly helped with this. Danilo losing his clean sheet wasn’t ideal though.

I’m now down to 10 transfers remaining with 248 points on the board. Going forward, I think I’ll now leave my back line as it is until these players are out of the tournament as clean sheets appear to be hard to come across.

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Day 13 & 14 Review

Day 13

I realised I missed my review of Day 13, it was a fairly uneventful day with very few points around for the big names due to rotation. I massively regret bringing Ronaldo in, but I’d have regretted it even more if he had scored a couple.

Day 14

Today was a good day for my blog team. Netherlands picked up a good result against USA and Dumfries was the highlight for me with two assists and a goal. It was a shame he didn’t get star man as I thought he deserved it but either way, it helped the team to rise on the leaderboard significantly. Gakpo and Noppert also got three points each. I toyed with the idea of bringing in a second Argentina defender, but managed to resist the urge. Thankfully I didn’t as they also lost their clean sheet. Messi chipped in with another 13 points. 30 points for the day brings my team up to 190 points but I do have 16 transfers remaining. My best team is on 210 points but only has 12 transfers remaining. It will be interesting to see which one finishes higher overall.

My plan is all mapped out here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l3XhGlw7BuM97f2x_NsKhvFYYZT-9tZPFo0yQH-UB5o/ and I plan to stick to this tomorrow by bringing in three French players. Unless of course I get second thoughts about not bringing in Kane. At the moment, I’m set on Raum going out for Hernandez, Musiala for Dembele and Ronaldo for Mbappe.

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Day 12 Review

Mixed feelings today, had Germany kept a clean sheet it would have been a better result with instant returns for Raum, but at least he picked up 4 points and Musiala picked up 8 for star man. Unfortunately, they are both now out of the tournament after an unexpected win for Japan. This helps in some ways as there’s less players to choose from and Spain now have an easier run to the semi final. However, I will need to use two transfers to take them out. I also thought Musiala was unlucky to not get at least one goal after hitting the post twice but that’s how it seems to be going for my blog team. The team has now moved up to 160 points, which isn’t awful but I need a big return from a player to get significantly higher up the leaderboard. Hopefully many teams above me have used loads of transfers. My best team is on 196 points.

I was also glad to see Belgium crash out of the tournament as it saves the headache of knowing whether to pick the likes of De Bruyne and Lukaku in the next round.

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Day 10 & 11 Review

I wasn’t around to post a review of the day yesterday, but in short, the three Dutch transfers worked a treat with 8 points for Noppert, 5 for Dumfries and 13 for Gakpo. It was also good to see De Jong get on the scoresheet. The England result didn’t really go in my favour as I only owned Shaw but all in all a decent day.

I was massively let down by my Danish players today. Not even a clean sheet for Maehle and Stov Olsen didn’t look like scoring. It was a mistake starting with these two but I thought they were worth a punt given their form going into the tournament. The Argentina result was half decent with Molina getting 10 points, had Messi scored the penalty he probably ends up on 12 points rather than 0. Either way, I went up on the leaderboard from the 10 points Molina achieved. I didn’t expect Australia to go through, which has thrown a spanner in the works really, as I now fancy Argentina to keep a clean sheet against them compared with the Netherlands against USA but either way, I can’t go back on the transfers made yesterday.

This leaves my blog team on 148 points. My best team is on 185 points and I’ve got another team on 184 points.

I’m now starting to map out a plan for the rest of the tournament. In the short term I’m tempted by Olmo and Alba tomorrow, ironically finishing second in that group is probably a better route to the final though but I think Spain will top the group. If they do, they are likely to meet Brazil in the quarter final, as a result, I won’t be loading up with too many of their players.

Here’s where I’m at with my team and plans for the knockout stage – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l3XhGlw7BuM97f2x_NsKhvFYYZT-9tZPFo0yQH-UB5o/

I’ve got a healthy number of transfers left so despite a fairly average start for my blog team, I’m fairly optimistic with a bit of luck that it might finish strongly.

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Day 9 Review

Other than Argentina losing to Saudi Arabia, today was unexpectedly one of the worst of the whole tournament for me. Pretty much all of my teams took a big hit on the leaderboard and the Richarlison transfer didn’t pay off in my main team. The clean sheet for Brazil really cost me, as did the goals for Fernandes. Such fine margins in the game, Ronaldo appears to grab the goal and 13 points for the goalscorer for it to be changed to Fernandes. Really frustrating considering my best team has constantly been around the 2,000th mark. Even that team has dropped beyond 5,000th on the leaderboard now.

I’ll be sticking to my plan tomorrow and making some transfers (possibly all three). I’ll almost certainly bring in Noppert and another Netherlands defender given that they are playing Qatar. I might then save my final transfer of the day for the England game. I’d prefer to see Kane not starting that game as I don’t want the dilemma of bringing him in or not.

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Day 8 Review

Feel like I’ve dodged a bullet today with only 1 player in action for my main team. However, I’m glad I didn’t make any transfers in that team. I didn’t fancy bringing in any players from the likes of Japan or Belgium and it turned out to be the right call. I’m keen to get some Spanish players in but again it didn’t feel like the right time with them playing Germany. I’ll be bringing in some of these players as we move into the knockout stage though. It was good to see Musiala grab 5 points and I thought he played well again. This brings my team to 99 points, which is a fairly poor start. However, I do have 23 transfers remaining. If these are used effectively, with a little bit of luck along the way, it could really turn around for this team. I’ve also got some players left in the team who really need a result in their last group fixtures, which is also an optimistic sign.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, I’m fortunate to still have Ronaldo in my team, so I’ll keep hold of him. I’ll also look to swap Martinez for Richarlison. My two only regrets in this team is not bringing in Mbappe yesterday and not bringing in Richarlison for Brazil’s first game as I was close to making both transfers.

Once these fixtures are over, I’ll be looking at transfers for Netherlands v Qatar, possibly even Germany v Costa Rica and Spain v Japan. Fingers crossed England rest Harry Kane as that’s a transfer I don’t want to be drawn into again. I’m also hoping France rest a lot of their players.

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Day 7 Review

24 points for the day wasn’t a bad result in the end. I’m disappointed that I didn’t get Mbappe in for his 18 points but after Kane blanked yesterday, I felt like the France and Denmark game might be a close encounter so picking the point scorer was going to be a challenge. We can’t burn transfers for every big player if every game but in hindsight it would have been better to skip the Kane transfer and bring Mbappe in. It was also a bitter blow that my two Argentina defenders didn’t start but at least one of them came on for 5 points. Messi also got his goal and star man, a transfer that actually paid off. Having watched that game, I’m far from convinced by Argentina in general though. The team is now on 94 points and isn’t in an awful position on the overall leaderboard but I’d prefer it to be much higher. in contrast, my alternative team is still flying high on 142 points.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, I won’t be bringing in any more Germany or Spain players as they face each other. I’m also tempted to resist bringing in a Belgian player considering how they performed in their first game. I’ve still got 23 transfers left in my main team so I’m not doing too badly from that perspective. I could take a hit tomorrow though if I’ve only got 1 player in action.

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Day 6 Review

On paper, I had three players in action today and picked up 8 points from two of them. However, I’m not sure the England clean sheet really helped me as I’m sure most people have more than one English defender. I also blew a transfer on Kane, but it was hard to know what kind of performance England were going to put in after the Iran result. They reverted to a fairly stagnant performance which results in clean sheets but no real goal threat. 16 points from today isn’t really enough for the team to kick on up the leaderboard. However, I would add that I was delighted with the star man award for De Jong, that’s 18 points from 2 games and he’s been my pick of the tournament so far. He probably wasn’t deserving of the star man award again but I’ll take the points. As they ended up drawing the game, hopefully, they won’t rotate in their final fixture either.

For my blog team, all of my chips are on Argentina tomorrow. If Argentina put in a really good performance I could be right back in it. If they flop again, this team is in trouble for the rest of the competition.

I’ll stick to my original plan and will put Messi back for that fixture. To take stock of where the team is at, I’ve used 6 transfers and have 70 points on the board.

My best team is flying on 109 points with 7 transfers used.

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Day 5 Review

Tricky day for my main team again. Ronaldo chipped in with 8 points but Neymar blanked. The same trend followed that’s been constant throughout the tournament so far – the 50/50 decisions just aren’t going in the favour of my main team. As mentioned yesterday, I’ve got a DTT 2 team, where I’m putting in the opposite option when it comes to the 50/50 choices. So far this has included:

2 Netherlands defenders rather than England defenders
Giroud instead of Mbappe
Asensio instead of skipping the transfer
Batshuayi instead of De Bruyne
Richarlison instead of Neymar

This team is flying on 98 points, whereas my blog team is on 54 points. Either way, I’ll push on and hope my luck changes. Luckily all of these conversations are being had in the WhatsApp group so Richarlison was highlighted as an option tonight, as was Batshuayi and Asensio so there’s plenty of value still being added.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, I’m not sure about Kane with fitness doubts. Netherlands defenders might be an option with two relatively easy games on the horizon but there will be plenty of discussion in the WhatsApp group before any decision is made.

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Day 4 Review

Another day with very little to celebrate in my main team. It’s been a very difficult tournament so far with very few high points. I only had two players in action and both underperformed for different reasons. I thought Musiala was Germany’s brightest attacking player and he failed to get a rating. I then dodged a transfer with Sarabia because he didn’t start for Spain – I couldn’t decide who to bring in so I skipped the game completely. Spain have been underwhelming in the past and have struggled to find a consistent goalscorer, typically they they go and score 7. Who would have predicted that after some of the results we’ve seen so far. I then put De Bruyne in as planned and I thought Belgium were poor tonight. Lucky to get a clean sheet and I was shocked De Bruyne got 3 points.

In this team, I just can’t seem to catch a break at the moment. The best example of this is my top performing team – I’ve called this team DTT 2 – as I’m basically putting in players who haven’t quite made it into my main team. For example, I wasn’t convinced by Asensio but thought he was worth a punt in a team I’m not bothered about so I bought him in – 8 points. I also had a choice between Batshuayi and De Bruyne, in my main team I went De Bruyne as he’s clearly the better option. In my DTT 2 team, I went for Batshuayi as another punt. He was fairly poor other than his goal but came away with 8 points. By good fortune alone, this team is now on 80 points and riding fairly high on the overall leaderboard. My main team has stuttered along on 46 points. Despite this, it’s still not performing as badly as I thought it would be on the overall leaderboard so some people must have got off to a really bad start.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, I’m going to have to target Brazil players to try and make up ground. As I saved a transfer today, I’m almost certain to go for Richarlson and Neymar. I may also bring in a Brazilian defender. Keep an eye on the WhatsApp group for live updates.

The one good thing that has come over of the tournament so far is the open WhatsApp group. Loads of discussion in there daily and plenty of player tips from the community. Alba, Asensio, Olmo and Batshuayi were all mentioned in there today. All the discussion seems to be taking place in here rather than in the comments section of the blog or the Facebook group so I’d suggest joining if you’re not in there already: https://chat.whatsapp.com/IyiLyop2NpmGmWY6isGRUb

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Day 3 Review

Despite a good performance from Mbappe this evening, all in all, it’s been a terrible day. If anything was going to cause one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history it was me selecting 5 Argentina players this morning. That was a disastrous result at such an early stage but no regrets over the decision as it was based on sound logic.

I felt Mbappe was unfortunate not to pick up the star man award this evening as well.

Points so far: 43

The key now is going to be to not press the panic button too early on. Due to a bad start, the temptation is to start chasing points but that’s a dangerous game. If transfers are blown early on it’s effectively game over. I wasn’t overly impressed by Skov Olsen this afternoon so I’ve still got my eye on Sarabia tomorrow. However, I’m questioning if it’s worth bringing in De Bruyne for one game or not. We won’t be able to afford to go after every big name every time they play so it’s a tough choice to make.

If it’s also a consolation for my main team, in one of my other teams I had the bright idea to start with a England block, which I then changed for a Argentina block today. I’m 6 transfers down in that team already and only 3 points better off.

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Day 1 & 2 Review

I’m not going to do a daily review but I just wanted to take stock now that the first two key fixtures are behind us. I’ve got mixed feelings today, I’m delighted with 10 points and a star man award for De Jong. I’m not too dissatisfied with 7 points from Kane but really disappointed that Shaw and Trippier lost their clean sheet bonus. They completely controlled the game and shouldn’t have really conceded a goal. It was also a bit of a kick in the teeth that Sterling picked up 10 points – given that he was initially in my starting line up and I swapped him for Martinez in my last update.

Points so far: 23

Not a great start in terms of points on the board but I do have plenty of players in action tomorrow.

On that note, I’m working in the morning but should have chance to check the Argentina team news. I’ll be bringing in an additional Argentina defender as planned. Ideally, Tagliafico to come in for Trippier. I’ll also be bringing in Mbappe for Kane for the France game in the evening. I won’t be confirming the transfer on the blog as I won’t have access in the morning so assume that Trippier comes out for Tagliafico if he’s starting. If he doesn’t start it will be a different Argentina defender – keep an eye on the WhatsApp group if you want a notification.

If you wanted to keep an eye on what I’ve got planned in terms of transfers, it’s all documented here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l3XhGlw7BuM97f2x_NsKhvFYYZT-9tZPFo0yQH-UB5o/ and I can’t see any reason to divert from the plan just yet.