DFF Beginners’ Camp: Setting Up The Offensive

Daily Fantasy Football Beginners’ Camp: Setting Up The Offensive

Building blocks is a must in your defensive. Should you aim to build a block of offensive players too? The clear answer here is a definite no. An offensive block will usually cost you important points because your players will each take assists and goals “away” from each other. If, for example, you set up three offensive players on a team and then win 2: 0, there is a very high chance that one of your players will score very few points. Therefore, in all tournament formats you should play a maximum of 2 players up front, even against teams which are very strong teams offensively.

The last round of the English Premier League

A good example of this was the last round of one of the Premier League seasons, third-placed Arsenal played at home against the already-relegated club Aston Villa. The odds and prediction were good for a runaway victory. The game was won by Arsenal and many players featured Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud. The latter was able to achieve three goals and was a perfect captain. However, A. Sanchez only took away a few points from the game, although his team won 4: 0 and he is undoubtedly an outstanding offensive player.

In addition, this game was one of only a total of 2 games on that particular match day in which it was extremely important for the defence to keep a clean sheet. This example illustrates that even two offensive players on a team is still by no means a guarantee of winning many points, in fact, it can often mean the exact opposite.

Splitting the offensive players

Basically, you should split your offensive players and put no more than two players from any one team into your attacking force. There are exceptions to this rule. If, for example, a very good team with a very strong offensive sends out three extremely prolific players against a very weak defence, then you can and should call this rule into question (but also think about the Arsenal game from the previous example). Always remember this – in Daily Fantasy Football, there are always situations in which it can pay to bend the rules slightly.

On match days where there is a clear favourite, you will often see the popular 2 + 2 system used. In this system, two players from one team form both the defensive block and the offensive. This is not possible at FanTeam and FantasyBet, which is why the 3 + 1 is so popular there, especially in this situation. As you will remember, we can use only three players from any given team on these sites. A DoN tournament format generally means no big changes for the offensive, because it is more profitable to set up two players from one team which has a very good offence. So make absolutely certain that you take home the points from your offensive players.

What to avoid

One beginner’s mistake to avoid is choosing offensive players from one team and defenders from their opponents. In this way you limit the points you can win right from the outset, which is never a sensible approach. On the other hand, if two powerful and attacking teams are playing each other, it can make a lot of sense to choose offensive players from both teams if a high-scoring match is expected.

You find all relevant information for your match-day preparation in our weekly previews.

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