Saturday 23 June 2018, 00:49

Fantasy Round 3 preview: Transfers, captains & boosts

  • ​The Round 3 deadline is 16:00 CET on Monday

  • Should you play your Maximum Captain, Bench Boost or Wildcard?

  • Our Fantasy scout highlights six players you should consider signing

Transfers

Deadline: Monday at 16:00 CET. You can make one transfer for free. Any additional transfers cost you four points.

Highest-scoring players

Overall Harry Kane (26), Cristiano Ronaldo (22 points), Denis Cheryshev (20), Romelu Lukaku (19), Jose Gimenez (18), Eden Hazard (17), Diego Costa (16), Luka Modric (16), John Stones (16), Aleksandr Golovin (15), Philippe Coutinho (14), Artem Dzyuba (14), Mile Jedinak, Fernando Muslera (14), Christian Eriksen (13), Andreas Granqvist (13), Aleksandar Kolarov (13), Danijel Subasic (13).

Playing your boosts

How to Play There should be more points scored in the group stage than the knockout phase, and this is your last chance in the former period to use your Maximum Captain or Bench Boost.

Maximum Captain In one of the seven rounds, you can play your Maximum Captain chip. In that round, you don’t select a captain. Instead, whichever of your 11 players scores the highest points delivers double for you. Let’s say you hadn’t fancied Cristiano Ronaldo to thrive against Spain in Round 1, and therefore hadn’t selected him as captain. Had you played your Maximum Captain for Round 1, it’s Ronaldo, provided he was in your starting XI, who would have scored double points for you.

Bench Boost For one round, all 15 of your players – rather than just 11 – will score you points. Does your 15 for Round 3 look strong?

Wildcard You can make unlimited transfers for one round. Use this in Round 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 or 7 because in Round 4 you already have unlimited transfers.

Players to bring in

Teams that are already through may rest players for the Round of 16 (beware the bluffs, mind!). Sides that are already out may let reserves experience the World Cup. Fortunately, we have Team Reporters providing previews, complete with possible XIs, and Live Blogs for every game, so be sure to check those out before making your selections.

And don’t forget: you can make unlimited substitutions for the Round of 16, so whoever you bring in now will be solely for Round 3. Here are six players you may want to consider bringing in…

Manuel Akanji (€4.5m) The Borussia Dortmund 22-year-old is very cheap for a defender who starts, and gave commanding performances against Brazil and Serbia. Next up is a Costa Rica side that hasn’t scored yet in Russia.

Fagner (€5m) The 29-year-old wasn’t even expected to go to Russia a few weeks ago, but after Daniel Alves was ruled out of the tournament, and Danilo sustained an injury ahead of the meeting with Costa Rica, the the attack-conscious wingback got his chance and delivered a fine performance. Can he get an assist against Serbia?

Brazil v Costa Rica: Philippe Coutinho of Brazil jumps

Philippe Coutinho (€9m) The 26-year-old may be pricey – albeit at just six per cent of the €142 million he cost Barcelona – but he’s scored in Brazil’s last three games. Furthermore, Serbia know they’ll probably have to beat Brazil to avoid elimination, and will therefore have to push forward, leaving space for ‘The Magician’ to exploit.

Edison Flores (€6.5m) Peru, despite impressing, are out following back-to-back 1-0 losses to Denmark and France. Los Incas are determined to make sure their first World Cup in 36 years is decorated by goals, and the man whose efforts and invention got them there will be expected to shine in what should be an open game against an Australia side who must go all out for victory.

Marco Reus (€8m) ‘Woody’ agonisingly missed Brazil 2014 through injury. He was frustratingly left out of Germany’s curtain-raising loss to Mexico in Moscow. When he finally got his first World Cup start on Saturday, he seized it with a goal and an assist. The defending champions still have work to do against Group F tailenders Korea Republic, and Joachim Low will charge Reus with producing more of the same.

Marco Reus of Germany celebrates after scoring

Lionel Messi (€12m) ‘The Atomic Flea’ have be on a six-match goal drought in the World Cup, but Argentina need to beat Nigeria and they may have to beat them by a few goals. Messi takes penalties. He takes free-kicks. And so you remember what happened when La Albiceleste were on the cusp of missing out on Russia 2018 in Quito last October?

Captains

Round 3 takes place over four days. You can change your captain on each of these days if you choose. Only the player who finishes Round 3 in your armband will score double points.

Fixtures

Monday Uruguay-Russia Saudi Arabia-Egypt Spain-Morocco IR Iran-Portugal

Tuesday Australia-Peru Denmark-France Nigeria-Argentina Iceland-Croatia

Wednesday Korea Republic-Germany Mexico-Sweden Serbia-Brazil Switzerland-Costa Rica

Thursday Japan-Poland Senegal-Colombia Panama-Tunisia England-Belgium