McDonalds World Cup fantasy round 3 – Rob Reid makes his round 3 transfer

World Cup 2018

Here’s Rob Reid with his McDonalds World Cup fantasy Round 3 article.  Rob’s team is going great guns and now he has to decide on his round 3 transfer

McDonalds World Cup fantasy round 3 – Rob Reid makes his round 3 transfer





The games keep coming thick and fast and unbelievably we are now halfway through the tournament in terms of matches played. It’s certainly been an entertaining spectacle so far with no goalless matches and plenty of controversy. Anyhow, the 3rd phase of games is here and it’s time for some more tinkering.

To recap, I set my initial team for Round 1 only, then played my Wildcard immediately for Round 2 – effectively using Round 1 as a ‘Free Hit.’ I’ve got 1 free transfer now for Round 3, having set up my Wildcard team in preparation for both Rounds. I’ll then have unlimited transfers again to turn my squad around for the knockout phase.

This week, the bulk of my returns came at the beginning of the round. I racked up 3 clean sheets and 2 goals on gameday 2 courtesy of Spain, Portugal, Uruguay and Ronaldo and Suarez respectively – this got me off to a healthy start. I also had a double return from my Brazilian contingent before Harry Kane’s 16 point haul on the last gameday. The only real disappointment was that I didn’t gamble on Sir Harold as my captain and played safe with Ronaldo. But hey, I’m not going to complain about 8 returns and Kane’s 16 point haul (still a good differential) – I’d be delighted with that in any regular Fantasy Football gameweek.

So I ended Round 2 with a solid 73 points giving me a total of 132 and a current Overall Rank of 16k.

So on to Round 3 – my initial plan had been to sell Kane for this round and bring in a striker with a better fixture. Costa, Jesus, Werner and Griezmann were the main candidates but to be honest, I can’t sell the leading scorer in the tournament even if he does have a tougher fixture this Round against Belgium.

I’ve decided therefore decided to make a slightly more boring sideways move. Midfield generally seems to be a problem area – the premiums seem to get points but there’s little to nothing coming from the budget players. My team certainly reflects this – bizarrely I’ve yet to register an assist and I’ve had no returns from any of my budget mids in 2 Rounds.

There are however a couple of players in this bracket who have impressed me. First up is Denis Cheryshev. He’s been shoehorned into the creative void left by Dzagoev’s injury and has certainly stepped up to the plate. He’s £5.5m so I could swap him for Meza or Layun. The downside is that for all their impressive form, Russia have yet to play anyone of any real quality. I think they’ll find Uruguay a much tougher nut to crack, especially the Atletico defensive partnership of Godin and Jimenez. I also have a Uruguayan defender in Varela, so this lessens the appeal even further.

The other budget player who’s impressed me has been Takashi Inui of Japan. The Japanese are the tournament’s surprise package for me so far. They’ve shown some real guile in both matches and Inui has looked dangerous and registered a goal and an assist against Senegal. They’re up against Poland in their last game. The Poles have been simply terrible in both matches and are already out. Japan need just a draw to secure qualification, though I suspect they’ll be keen to try and win the group. He’s only £4.5m so I could bring him in for Senegal defensive mid N’Diaye who is unlikely to score many points.

So these look my best options, but the other thing I’m considering is the Germany vs South Korea fixture. Germany have been way short of their killer best, but they just have this knack of getting things done in major tournaments. I suspect Germany will give South Korea a bit of a tanking which should secure them a place in the last 16 and I’m nervous of not having any German coverage. The problem for me though is who as, strangely for them, there’s a lot of uncertainty about their team. Toni ‘the waiter’ Kroos has been their best player so far but is out of my price range unless I sell Coutinho, which I don’t fancy. The other option is to sell Suarez and go for a striker in which case I’d favour Marco Reus, but I don’t like this option, especially with Suarez on pens.

In the end, the Inui option makes the most sense so he’s going to be my transfer in for N’Diaye of Senegal. Finally, I’m toying with using my Maximum Captain chip for this one, but I think I’m going to hold off. I’ve got options on all 4 gamedays (albeit a pretty poor one on gameday 2 with Meza) so I’m going to hold it until the later rounds where there are less gamedays and therefore even less chances to correct an error.

Good luck for Round 3 everyone whoever you decide on and I hope you continue to enjoy what has (I reckon) been a fabulous tournament so far.

Here’s my team:



McDonalds World Cup fantasy round 3

Geek World Cup Leagues

It’s too late to join the telegraph league btw.  I’m not sure what the rules are in joining the other leagues now but here’s the details anyway

McDonalds FIFA Official

FantasyFootballGeek

or League code:
ZKD1IBZR

Sun Dream Team

Fantasy Football Geek
League PIN: WCW6UFM9

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