Group A(budget heaven)

Poland.

The Poland team did not have to go through qualifying, so statistics are not too helpful in helping us decide who the main men are, apart from the two obvious choices in Lewandowski and Blaszczkowski. 

 The Offense

Looking that we are dealing with a defensive minded team, seemingly playing with 1 up front there are not too many options. Lewandowski is the main goalscorer for Poland and Borussia Dortmund, priced at 8.0 as many as 22.2% players of the McDonalds game have already chosen him for their teams. Poland have a tough first game but I would not bet against this clinical striker to score. And he will need to do that more than once for Poland to get out of the group as the bookies predict. Another man who will need to step up is Blaszskowski(Kuba), being a teammate with Lewandowski for club and country he should be the man to feed Lewandowski for goals. Kuba also is the penalty taker for Poland which is always helpful. Priced at a decent 7.5 he is also a very good option. Some less obvious options are Obraniak at 6.5 and Rybus at 5.5, both look like nailed on to start at least the first game. Obraniak especially is a interesting choice, given that he is actually OOP. The way Poland play allows him to stay behind the striker, but as the ball moves to the wing than Lewandowski moves to the front or the back post and Obraniak chooses the open area to move into. Rybus at 5.5 is the ultimate budget option here, not many offensive players at that price. He has played nicely in recent games and looks to have guaranteed himself a starting role. A assist and a goal are not out of reach for him.

 

 

 The Defense

Having conceded 0 goals in the last 3 friendlies Poland is looking like a strong defensive side. One can say that the opponents have been average at best, but given the low scoring opponents they will face in group stages id suggest Polish defensive cover is not a bad idea. Starting with the Keeper Szczesny at 5.0, budget options Boesnish and Perquis at 4.5, and of course the 12.6% owned Piszczek at 5.0. Piszczecks popularity is not a surprise, he has just completed a title winning campaign with Borussia Dortmund and scored 4 goals and 7 assists during that 32 game Bundesleague season. On the other hand, Poland is a way more defensive side than the impressive Dortmund. For that reason many may go for the cheaper Perquis and be happy with a few extra RB points. 

Which players I would go for:

In my opinion a defensive option is a must, so choose one. Given that they are a limited offensive side in my opinion, than I would look no Further than Kuba or Lewandowski. But if you have guts than the cheaper and OOP Obraniak at 6.5 could be a very nice differential.

Group A(budget heaven)

Group A or group of life as it has been called by many pundits, offers many great budget options. All groups have favorites and so does group A, but the odds of the underdogs are much greater than in any other group. And as no team in this group is expected to win the Euros, there are many budget options to go around. So lets started with the favorites.

Russia:

As you can see in the picture above the Russian lineup is a 4-1-2-3. In this formation both of the fullbacks get forward a lot and the 3 players in the middle of the field help out defending. This should see both fullbacks getting at least some assists despite the Russian defensive mindset. Also the 3 midfielders, one of them being the widely owned Shirokov, should collect plenty of RB points along with the offensive output. 

The Offense: 

In the McDonalds game Arshavin is classified as a forward and priced at a hefty 9.0, this makes him a overpriced option for this offense in a valuable striker spot. While Dzagoev at 7.5 is on the opposite wing and a classified as a midfielder. Dzagoev also scored 3 goals in 3 games and 1 sub appearance during the qualifying campaign, that is second highest to Pavlyutchenko who had 1 big game and is unlikely to start for Russia. Russian main striker Kerzhakov is priced at a affordable 8.0 and it seems likely that he will be the penalty taker for his nation. But given his poor goalscoring return of 0 goals in the qualifiers he is not someone I am exited about. The current crowd favorite Shirokov is the ultimate budget option for Russia, he has also been the highest scorer for Russia in the friendlies leading up to the tournament. I am not buying it dough, he is sitting fairly deep for the Russian side and to be honest his recent brace against Italy was fairly lucky. In qualifiers hes tally was also a measly 0 goals and 0 assist after playing 4 games. 

The Defense: 

This Russian side allowed the second fewest goals in qualifying of all the teams involved, they also had a fairly easy group. But as in the group they find themselves in today is not full of high scoring teams one could go out on a limb and say that a Russian defenders is a must have.

Given the low number of goals Russia score and the defensive nature of 2 of the 3 opponents they are facing, I would say there is no need to pay extra for a full back priced at 6.0(Anyukov or Zhirkov) but just go for the cheap 5.5 Alexei Berezutski and collect some extra RB points that center backs get you to make up for a lost assist or 2. The goalkeeper position seems to be undecided but weather it is Akinfeev or Malafeev in goal 5.5 and 5.0 respectively, both will be nice options to have.

Which players I would go for: