World Cup Fantasy: MD1 Observations and MD2 Plan

Now that we are done with matchday 1 of World Cup Fantasy, tipster Bakchod FPL shares his observations and his plan for matchday 2 in this article.

14/16 games done in MD1, sharing our observations and early plans for MD2 in this article.

Group A

🇶🇦 Qatar 0-2 Ecuador 🇪🇨

Enner Valencia scored twice, the first was a penalty, and the second was an excellent header assisted by Preciado.
Valencia did walk off because of a suspected knee injury, but he will be fit for the Netherlands game, as per manager Gustavo Alfaro.
While he has an attractive price of $6.5M, I don’t think I will be letting go of one of my premium forwards (like Messi, Kane or Neymar) to get Valencia for the match against the Netherlands; Giroud is priced just slightly higher at $7.5M.
Estrada had an xA of 0.4 (highest for Ecuador); Preciado had an xA of 0.4 and completed the maximum passes (4) and crosses (3) in the 18-yard box for Ecuador.
Qatar, meanwhile, didn’t have a single shot on target. They face Senegal next.

🇸🇳 Senegal 0-2 Netherlands 🇳🇱

Bergwijn, 3rd most selected Dutch player (15.8%), had just 24 touches in the 78 minutes he was on – the lowest among all players that played 75+ minutes; he didn’t take a single shot during the game.
Gakpo had an xA of 0.3, and he looked good with a goal and 13 crosses in the game (7 corner kicks). The next for highest crosses for the Netherlands was Blind with four. Gakpo is categorized as a forward, though, at $7M.
Dumfries had 3 crosses and an xA of 0.2.
Noppert made some good saves. In fact, Senegal had a higher xG (0.9) than the Netherlands (0.7); at $4.5M, he can be considered as the Netherlands should get at least one more cleansheet in the next two fixtures (their final group game is against Qatar).
Van Dijk (owned by 24.5% of teams) had two shots as well (xG of 0.1); while De Jong did get an assist, he just had two key passes and zero shots during the game – at $8.5M, he doesn’t look like a good fantasy pick.

Group B

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England 6-2 Iran 🇮🇷

Saka ($8M) had three shots and two goals in the 69 minutes he was on; he also had an xA of 0.2; Kane didn’t score but made two assists. He didn’t have a single shot in the game.
Kane did walk off injured. Southgate will be taking a late call on Kane.
Sterling ($8.5M) got a goal and had one key pass as well.
Bellingham ($7.5M) did also get a goal, but he had just one shot and no key passes (although he had an xA of 0.2). Saka is definitely the better midfield option.
Shaw and Trippier looked good – they were on corners and had seven and six crosses, respectively (top 2 for England). Shaw also got an assist; Kane was third for crosses with three.
Maguire got an assist and did hit the post once via a header; while he was subbed off with an illness, he will be fit for the USA game.
Grealish, Rashford and Wilson had returns but they didn’t start, so I don’t think you should consider them.
While Taremi did get two goals for Iran, he is priced at $7M; other forwards in the 6.5-7.5 range with returns are Valencia (11 points), Giroud (11), and Torres (10).

🇺🇸 USA 1-1 Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Weah did get the goal, but he just had 33 touches and one shot in the 87 minutes that he was on; Pulisic didn’t get any shots but did make two key passes.
USA do play England next, though USA assets can be avoided for MD2.
Meanwhile, Bale did get the goal for Wales via a penalty. He didn’t have any other shots during the game; Moore had two shots and an xG of 0.4. He didn’t start, though.
Davies had two shots as well and the third-highest xG for Wales (0.3); the defender is priced at $5M, though.

Group C

🇦🇷 Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦

Messi had two shots (xG of 1), Di Maria and Martinez had two shots each (xG of 0.1); Messi had the highest key passes as well (3), Di Maria next with two.
Argentina were creating chances, but Saudi Arabia kept high defensive lines which led to a couple of disallowed goals; KSA found easy gaps in the defence as well in the second half.
Argentina play Mexico next, who didn’t look very good themselves vs Poland. It is a must-win game for Argentina.

🇲🇽 Mexico 0-0 Poland 🇵🇱

– Lewandowski missed a penalty and only had one shot in the game (which wasn’t on target); he did have two key passes as well, the same as Zieliński.
– Vega had five shots for Mexico, but none on target; Lozana and Chavez had two key passes each.

Group D

🇫🇷 France 4-1 Australia 🇦🇺

Mbappe ($11.5M) had seven shots, three key passes and an xG of 1.2; Giroud ($7.5M) had five shots and an xG of 1.7.
Griezmann had an excellent game, with no returns but three shots and five key passes; Rabiot did get a goal and an assist as well.
Theo Hernandez also had two shots, and second-highest key passes at four; he also got an assist.
France do play Denmark next; Denmark had eight clean sheets in qualifiers and kept a clean sheet against Tunisia as well.

🇩🇰 Denmark 0-0 Tunisia 🇹🇳

Cornelius had three shots and an xG of 0.1 in the 26 minutes he played after being subbed on.
Top scorers for Denmark in the qualifiers and the highest selected players – Maehle (33% selected, one shot and one key pass), and Olsen (15% selected, zero shots and key passes).
Eriksen was creating lots of chances with five key passes in the game.

Group E

🇩🇪 Germany 1-2 Japan 🇯🇵

Gnabry had six shots, xG of 0.7; he also had the 2nd highest xA 0f 0.2 with two key passes; meanwhile, Kimmich had four shots (third highest) with an XG of 0.2 and had the highest xA of 0.9 with three key passes, took corners as well.
Gnabry is owned by only 2.2% of teams, Kimmich by 8.4%.
Highest owned players for Germany – Sane (16%, didn’t feature), Musiala (13%, three shots but none on target, xG of 0.3 and xA of 0.1) and Rudiger (13%, also three shots but none on target).
Doan and Asano, the goal scorers for Japan – both came on as substitutes; Asano did get five shots in the 34 minutes that he was on.
Hiroki Sakai (defender, $4M) can be considered for MD2 as Japan play Costa Rica (who didn’t have a single shot during the game); good chance of a cleansheet, also Sakai had the highest xG+xA for Japan at 0.6.

🇪🇸 Spain 7-0 Costa Rica 🇨🇷

Just like Bergwijn, Asensio is starting as the forward but is categorized as a midfielder; Asensio had the highest shots for Spain (five, one on target) and an xG of 0.8.
Olmo is next for shots (four, two on target), xG of 1; Olmo is also on corners for Spain.
Ferran Torres got two goals and had an xG of 0.9.
While Pedri played only 56 minutes, he did have three key passes and an xA of 0.7; Pedri is also the highest-owned player for Spain (8.7%). Jordi Alba is next at 5.6% (he got an assist).

Group F

🇲🇦 Morocco 0-0 Croatia 🇭🇷

Perišić and Modrić had one shot each, and neither had any key pass; Modric is owned by 14% of teams and Perisic by 7%.
Croatia play Canada next; while Canada did lose 1-0 to Belgium, they looked the better side of the two.

🇧🇪 Belgium 1-0 Canada 🇨🇦

Batshuayi had five shots and an xG of 0.5; at $6.5M, he is a good pick. KDB had four key passes, and Courtois made a few great saves.
Jonathan David had seven shots (none on target) for Canada, xG of 1; Buchanan had three shots (none on target) with an xG of 0.5.

Group G & H

Switzerland beat Cameroon 1-0, and Embolo got the winner.
Meanwhile, Uruguay-South Korea ended 0-0. Uruguay did play well, but they face Portugal next, so will hold off on Uruguayan assets for now.

To summarise:

At the time of writing this article, there are 15 forwards with more than six points. However, there are only 10 midfielders.
Of these 10 – four are from Spain, three are from England and Rabiot, Gündoğan, and Klassen complete the top 10.
While I have premium forwards in Messi, Kane and Neymar, and the former two have returned; my top-scoring midfielder is at two points.
Defenders are getting cleansheets as well, so the midfield is the area to be strengthened.
I won’t be opting for the wildcard in MD2. Not sure of the hack to use the wildcard in MD2 and also use it for MD3.
Currently considering Kane (doubtful because of the injury), Olsen and Modrić out for Giroud and 2 out of Saka/Kimmich/Asensio/Olmo (although Spain do play Germany) for a hit.
Will be retaining Di Maria and De Paul; hoping for a Messi-inspired performance vs Mexico.

All data taken from fbref.

You can find additional World Cup Fantasy resources for the 22/23 season here.

Bakchod FPL

Two football fans from Bangalore, playing and writing about Fantasy Football in our spare time.