The group stage fixtures of Euro 2016 are over and now it's time to give your Euro fantasy team a makeover. The first thing you need to remember now is that this is your final opportunity to make unlimited changes to your team. So go ahead and experiment with all possible permutations to get the players you want.
Picking your team with unlimited transfers makes your job easier, but there are certain things you need to keep in mind. Since there are only four transfers for you to use before the quarter-final stage, make sure you pick players from as many teams as possible. This helps if and when players from your fantasy team get eliminated.
In this round, you are allowed to take, at most, four players from one team, but I would suggest that you pick at most two players from one team.
These are the eight teams who I expect will go through to the next round based purely on the group stage performance and pre-quarter fixtures: Poland, Croatia, Wales, Belgium, Germany, Italy, France and England. I would suggest that you try and pick your fantasy team using players from the teams I mentioned above.
As always, don’t forget to play around with your Captain. Chose a Captain who plays on the first day. If he doesn’t do well, then pick a player who features on the second day and so on.
Goalkeepers:
As far as goalkeepers go, I would suggest you take both your keepers from teams that have a chance of advancing to the next round so that you can save that transfer in the next round. My picks are obvious - Manuel Neuer and Hugo Lloris.
Other keepers you can try are one of David De Gea or Gianluigi Buffon, Danijel Subasic, one of Wojciech Szczesny or Yann Sommer and Joe Hart.
Defenders:
If the round of 16 fixtures are going to be as tight as the group stage fixtures then picking five good defenders is a great choice. I got a lot of points in the group stage from my defenders who kept clean sheets and it helped me because the forwards and midfielders in my team were not scoring or assisting as I would have liked.
Two players I would recommend are Eric Dier of England and Emanuele Giaccherini. Both players are listed as defenders on the euro-fantasy website and in truth, they play in midfield. The advantage of taking them is that they have a better chance of scoring or assisting than most defenders plus, they also get the points for any cleansheet their team keeps.
Other than these players, some cheap players who are sure to start in the next game are Thomas Meunier of Belgium, Raphael Guerreiro of Portugal and Kamil Glik of Poland.
I would also suggest that at least for the round of 16, try not to pick a defender from the same team as your playing goalkeeper. I would also like to remind you that picking full backs is always a better option than picking a centre-back, this is because full backs generally join the attack and have a very good chance of getting an assist or a goal.
Some fullbacks like Darijo Srna and Ricardo Rodriguez are also good picks as they take set-pieces.
Midfielders:
My advice when it comes to picking midfielders doesn't change. Always go for players who are wingers or attacking midfielders as they are the ones who tend to score or assist. If you took my advice on this matter previously, then you would have got a lot of points from the likes of Ivan Perisic and Dimitri Payet.
Other players I would suggest are Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Toni Kroos. If you want cheap players who might fetch you points then you should go for Dele Alli or Joao Mario.
Forwards:
If the group stage form is anything to go by then Thomas Muller would be a huge gamble and one I am still pondering over. However, the likes of Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo could prove to be a good addition despite their hefty prize tag.
Alvaro Morata has been in fine form, but Spain are up against one of the best defences in the tournament, so taking him would be a gamble. However, his teammate, Nolito, costs only €6.0m and has done very well in the group stage fixtures.
Belgium have failed to take their chances properly so I am still against picking Romelu Lukaku despite his brace against Ireland. Nani has scored two goals for Portugal, but if you have Cristiano Ronaldo in your fantasy team, then Nani is a strict no-go from my side. Olivier Giroud will be France's first choice striker and they are up against the Republic of Ireland, so he is worth taking a gamble on.
Get to work now!
