Sponsored by Sorare
It’s almost time for the World Cup to kick off, and with it, the Sorare: Global Cup ‘22 – a brand new, free-to-play, Sorare tournament for the international football period.
We gave you the lowdown on how to play earlier this week. Now, regular writer MDJ is going to cover a few things that you might want to consider as you pick your final squad of eight players.
Join our Private League
Before we get into that, a quick reminder to join our Global Cup Private League. You can join as many Private Leagues as you want and you play with exactly the same lineup so it’s literally no more effort than clicking a button.
And we’ve got some fantastic prizes on offer:
- 9 x Limited card prizes for the highest scores each matchday
- 10 x Limited card prizes for the overall leaderboard finish
- Plus two bonus Star Limited card prizes to be announced during the tournament – follow us on Twitter to find out more!
To enter, follow this link or use the code: NF3UGR
Managing the points cap
Nothing good ever came easy… and that’s definitely the case here! Your biggest challenge is squeezing as much as you can out of the 100-point ‘budget’ that you’re initially given by Sorare.
Sorare seem to have got their pricing pretty spot on, with all of the big guns coming in at 17 points or more, or a little less for defenders and midfielders. So you need to be smart.
It’s worth remembering that there are no subs in Sorare. If a player doesn’t play, he won’t be replaced by one of your squad players – there is no bench. In a competitive game like Sorare, lining up with only four players in a Gameweek is usually the kiss of death. This means the most important thing is making sure you have five players who are likely to play every game.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you should blow all your points on your five starters though. If one of them gets injured, it’s useful to have a replacement in the wings. Also, if scores are tied on the leaderboard, the tiebreak will be the top three scores from your non-playing players that week – so keep that in mind. But also remember you’ll win some extra players as you progress, and you can add more players for the Round of 16.
Club versus country
You have to switch your mindset a little when moving from domestic to international football. Some of the best players their domestic leagues just aren’t likely to perform as well on the world’s biggest stage. The one that springs to mind for me is Robert Lewandowski – he’s been devastating for Barcelona (and Bayern before that) but he has struggled to score for Poland in major tournaments. Unsurprising given that Poland are a much weaker team.
Likewise, there will be some players who barely register at home but can be expected to burst into life in the World Cup. Think of the forgotten men, like Antoine Griezmann for France or Memphis Depay for the Netherlands.
Correlation
As in any fantasy game, one of the secrets to success will be pairing up players from teams you expect to do well. This is especially important in a knockout tournament.
If you can pick six or more players in your initial draft that make it through to the latter stages of the game, you’ll be in a strong position as you’ll be able to use your redraft points to add strength to your team rather than having to fill gaps.
The other aspect here is stacking. If you can pair up players from teams that you expect to have a good game, you’ll increase your chances of a monster score if things go right.
Differentials
The Global Cup is going to be competitive. There are already nearly 250,000 squads registered in the competition and it’s likely to spike again before the deadline. Plenty of competition means you have to think about differentials when building your squad and picking your line ups.
The most-picked players are most-picked for a reason, so don’t go too crazy here. You probably don’t want to look too far outside of the main men but, if you can find just one player who is a little under the radar and goes on to have a great tournament, you’ll be well placed to have the edge over other people. That could be as simple as opting for Lautaro Martínez over Lionel Messi, or maybe you can find some underpriced hidden gems like Sebastian Szymański for Poland.
You know what to do. Click the link below and begin drafting your squad before the tournament kicks off on Sunday.
Good luck!