FISO

Ni5 sure how much interest this post will get....i’m Hoping to discuss managers opinion on optimum strategy for low or single entry managers in this game.

The way I see it is the strategy for the large multis is obvious....cover all the bases.

But for the manager entering just a few teams (as Biddles pointed out this is one expensive game with huge variance so entering as many as 10 teams will cost circa 250 Euro which could literally be money down the drain and let’s be frank, to the normal joe it’s a lot of money to throw down the drain).

I’m literally on the fence with this.....I’m really struggling, in reality, I guess a lot of people’s feedback is if you are a single entrant or are entering just a couple of teams the best strategy will probably be not to bother....

I’m in the same camp which then gets me thinking well how many teams do I need to enter to stand a realistic chance and then what is the best strategy...?

Do you pick 4 x teams of 3 players that you think will progress from the last 16 into the quarters and then pick 3 payers from the other teams, I.e 1 Leipzig, 1 spurs, 1 Valencia (knowing that way that for example you will either have a Spurs or Leipzig player playing in the quarters....or do you pick say 4 x 3 players that you will think will progress and then 3 from Leipzig and pick an identical team with 3 x from Spurs....again guaranteeing you either 3 x spurs/Leipzig in the quarters which may come in handy if one of your 4 banker teams lose?

Of course the lotto of the quarter final draw makes it so hard to predict anything but there must be a way of the smaller guys finding some sort of edge in this freeze game as just like 12345678 I truly be,Keven the lack of any transfers is more of a disadvantage to them than the smaller guys...

Or is it just down to player picks and if so who are the best picks....

I personally like Gnabry from Bayern as I think he’s a goal machine and great value at 9m and I was going to pick forsburg for Leipzig as he usually does pens but he hasn’t been starting recently so maybe one to avoid....any thoughts welcome guys...be good to have a discussion....

I'm going 4x3 for 4 teams that have a strong possibility of making the semis. Then the final 3 picks will come from a wildcard team like a Leipzig in case one of the big boys gets knocked out early.

For the single entrant, you will definitely get a return using the above strategy as long as you pick the 4 correct semi-finalists.

If you're a single entrant and want to win the whole thing - then 2 wildcard semi-finalist picks could be the way to go i.e. Spurs/Ajax last season.

Are you putting all your eggs in one basket with regards the 4x3 teams by picking the same wild card for the other 3 or are you going to mix up the wild card?

I have considered playing two of my teams off against each other...I.e 2 with Leipzig and 2 with Spurs...guaranteeing two of them in the quarters....but of course the other two teams would be in the quarters with a max of 12 players, assuming of course all your other 4 x 3 get through!

I have a feeling that will be the strategy the multis will adopt in huge numbers.....hence the reason I am looking for something different,.. a different perspective, though I guess the reality is the best strat is to multi!

Agree n your option for the single entrant....

Do you think instead of picking 3 x wild card from the same team you would be better off picking say 1 from 3 different wildcard teams?

Will be interesting how this goes, even though i'm not a fan of the freeze strategy, i shall reluctantly still be putting in a couple of teams. I'll have to go for at least one wildcard "team" pick in each entry (3 players), with the hope one of those wildcard teams makes it through.

As of now, there are currently 524 teams entered of which there are 253 different managers and those with 10 teams or above are below - 176 managers so far just opted for the single team effort.

Interesting isn't it.

Lots of single entry players but also not the huge volume of Multi teams from the usual suspects like Sandor

Maybe they have realised that my going so left field so as to cover nearly all possible outcomes it will decrease their EV hugely as they would have to cover so many un-probable outcomes that unless they went HUGE they would not have enough teams of the more probable teams to progress to give them the significant edge they would normally demand in a transfer based game.

Maybe as such they have concentrated on the more obvious suspects and the more probable teams to progress but instead have diversified on the players in those teams so as to cover more of the possibilities of players which will give them the edge over Mr average Joe who not only has to guess the right teams to get through the quarters and in to the semis but also the right players and the right captains

Maybe they are not going left field at all (or covering a bare minimum) but are actually covering the more probable outcomes big.

Makes me thinks that maybe blocks strat for single entry teams is actually optimum for even those with a few more teams, go left field....


or do you put all your eggs in one basket? cover a small selection of teams and cover the max number of players as possible within those teams.....meaning if your teams do actually get through to the Semi's you will have more of the player pool within those clubs covered....?

To be honest i dont have strategy.. Just will go for players from team that i think will winn cl and then cros finger for a draw..

That might actually be the best strategy mate.....just pick the players from the teams you think will do well and stop overthink it!

Though, The only thing i’m Really still struggling is whether to pic 3x players from my wild card team meaning I can get as many as 15 players in the quarters (all going well of course) or whether to mitigate and pick 2 x from one wild card and 1 x from another meaning I will have a max of 14 players (but 13 if the most popular wild card which seams to be Leipzig bomb out to spurs).

All academic of course if one of you “dead certs” also crashes, then I guess you will wish you went for 3 x players from the same wild card team, however, if you wild card team does crash out in the last 16 your carrying a max of 12 players into the quarters....

It’s a tough one imop....don’t know if anyone has any thoughts on the above?

No point going for a fragmented approach with wildcard players - it's a short competition and I want 11 players out on the pitch in the semis.

Say one of the big boys get knocked out and only one of your wildcard players makes it through to the semis - well you are down to 10 men for the semis.

not sure i fully understand....

You are correct of course that if one of your wild cards with 2 players in it gets knocked out and one of your big boys gets eliminated in the quarters you could only have a max of 10 in the semi...however if one of your wildcard with 2 x players in it went through and you lost you big boy you would still have 11....potentially at least...in the semi, assuming of course you wildcard gets through to the semis...which if they didn't and you have lost a big boy means you could only have a max of 9 in the semi anyway.....

I was asked to update the totals so far for entries, so here it is.. by the way, i have the player list on my site where you can see the number of teams with each player in also

713 entries, 303 unique managers, 211 managers with just one team

Managers with 10 teams or above

The Big Boys
Man City, Liverpool, PSG, Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern, Real Madrid

The wildcards
Spurs, Leipzig, Atalanta, Valencia, Dortmund.

The no-hopers
Napoli, Lyon, Atletico, Chelsea

I expect this to age well

Number of teams are defo increasing....

Some big hitter Steve19881 is banging in loads of teams...no idea who that is

Sandor looks like he is up to like 65 teams!!!!

Any chance if an update Frank please?

Not that I guess it matters at this point?!?

1903 entries, 753 unique managers

Managers with 10 teams or above

Ricky bumped up to 10 teams

Think I will declare on 20. Enough bases have been covered not including the no-hopers. They can be backed in the betting market at long odds to make the semis.

I suspect Sandor has been entering a significant number of teams containing the no-hopers.

All the big hitters are in for sure....

I am not so sure about him covering a significant number of no hopers...of course he will have covered some but i think he will have covered the more popular picks, just gone wider on the player pool.

Makes me think that my ten teams may be no where near enough, though with 753 unique managers only, lots of single and dual entrants ...who knows!

Soon find out...

I have spent so many hours on this it's in true...so many late nights, just like 2016...

trouble is my strat is so high risk if it comes off i could win it!

If it doesn't as usual, i will look like a fool!

Still, as i always say..,

he who dares....

I'd wish you luck Block, but as you know, i would be lying.

I'll post the final stats later when teh table has settle for number of teams etc

live top 100 leaderboard now live on my site also

https://www.ffstuff.co.uk/Top100FanTeamCL2019Freeze.php

takes a few seconds to load as it goes and gets all the data live

Not the best start with Liverpool conceding hey Block....

still early days...

like the look of your dortmund team as well, didn't cover one myself....eggs all in PSG basket...Dortmund are all over them at the moment....

fingers crossed from my perspective!

You went with Sterling as well which seems an interesting pick?

Sterling capable of getting big hauls - his injury isn't that serious and he could be back for the 1st leg. I remember he scored a hat-trick against Atalanta earlier this season so hopefully they both qualify and meet again in quarters.

I'm surprised Lewandowski is in almost in 50% of teams - you must be really hoping he flops

Just think there was a lot better value in the Bayern team than Lewandowski (which as i type sounds weird) but Muller was too good value to turn down with the most assist in the Bayern team this season, he's like the old Muller and i thought it was a left field pick that could;d genuinely come off.

Gnabry is imop a goal machine......and Stephens despite listed as a mid and playing as a defender is locked into to play and too good value to turn down....just left no space for the big man.......

tonight a strange one isn't it....Mane off already....-1 to boot and Liverpool just dont look like scoring Instagram them and i can see the Dortmund/PSG game ending nil nil!!!

This is where the Big multis coma into their own.....so hard to compete with those guys....

still let's not forget it's match day 1 and the quarter final draw for sure will put the car amongst the pigeons i am sure.

must sau i like your bias towards Atalanta....especially with Valencia benign so depleted with no rodrigo etc.........caused me a few problems as because he was a differential i had not put that much thought into Valencia...just sort of picked him, it was only tonight i really, really researched and realised he had not travelled and thought fu*k.... so meant loads of last min changes....not great, but, it is what it is....

funny how you predicted i would not be putting lewandoski!

must say, never considered sterling!!

have you checked out any of my teams....if so what do you think?

i went for a real madrid/city play off 6 of my teams effectively screwing 3 of them but guaranteeing 3 x teams into the quarters......my only issue i think is i have underestimated dortmund....i covered the Dortmund effect by only picking 6 PSG teams, thus making tonights game academic for 4 of my teams but as i type Halland has scored.......

not great!!!

Haaland looking good. Verratti and Meunier out of the 2nd leg through suspension - could Dortmund pull this off and go through?

One thing I did forgot to do was check who was 1 yellow away from suspension

me too.

have to say mate... WP.

Two teams in the to 100 and one in the top 50....you must be buzzing.

my best team like 1200th.

Cheers. It was a tough call keeping the armband away from Messi and Ronaldo, but Haaland's scoring record has been ridiculous recently.

Not getting too excited though - these teams rely on Dortmund qualifying which is still a toss of the coin.

I don’t know mate... think your understimatg your teams...even if the do get knocked out which is looking (on current form and with all the suspensions) unlikely....your armband will,go to one of your big hitters.....even ifnDOrtmund do get knocked out which now I don’t think I they will.

So frustrating as muy original draft contained two Dortmund teams but I decided to go big....or maybe in my case...go home.

You have had a great start which is a lot more than I can say.....so well played....I need Leipzig to do spurs tomz and just need to chilax and remember there is (even after this game week has played and there are still,loads of matches to go) 6 possible games left....it’s all about getting 10-11 players in the semi’s imop and 6 in the final imop.
Still would trade positions with you in a heart beat so well done.


Pisses me off that Sandor is I like 4th place already...it’s so tough to compete with the bankrolls.

Wonder what will happen In the city/real game...that will make or break a few teams imop.....might make your sterling pick academic!

Agree with your strategy but I went one step further and picked a squad with 5 x 3 players.

Made it tough to squeeze 15 in from that strategy tho so ended up with players from Liverpool, Real, Dortmund, Leipzig and Bayern.

No City or Barca coverage is sheer folly but as a single entrant might as well just have a punt on the odd shock.

If all 5 teams get through to the QFs then you are sitting nicely. If one gets knocked out you still have an outside squeak of cashing in some manner providing the draw isn't completely horrible.

It's a lottery but got to be in it to win it.

Mon Ze Gerries

Atalanta destroying Valencia and Iličić on the scoresheet too

Shame no clean sheat..

the duke out of the citeh game with a broken leg, bad luck for any contrarian real blocks with him.

as far as i can see the 'unlucky' injuries for this weeks round since the comp commenced are e.hazard (now claimed to be an ankle injury), roberto (abductor) and higuain who would probably have come on as a sub rather than starting. forgot hudson-odoi (who can't really be considered an unlucky one given his injury record this season).

39 goals for the season - you'd be crazy to leave him out!

RickyRosa wrote: ↑18 Feb 2020, 20:28 Not the best start with Liverpool conceding hey Block....

still early days...

like the look of your dortmund team as well, didn't cover one myself....eggs all in PSG basket...Dortmund are all over them at the moment....

fingers crossed from my perspective!

You went with Sterling as well which seems an interesting pick?

5 points for Sterling already and he wasn't even on the pitch for that long. I expect him to score big in this competition.