This article is part of our DraftKings Fantasy Soccer series.
2:00 pm: France vs. Morocco
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CASH GAME STRATEGY
The cash game discussion on this slate must start with the France side where you need to decide who you want to captain between Kylian Mbappe ($12,600) and Antoine Griezmann ($10,400). Mbappe has a clearly higher ceiling, but Griezmann is over $2,000 cheaper and is on most of the set pieces. Looking at floor stats, Griezmann is neck and neck with Mbappe, making me lean his way for cash games in the captain spot. This is a game where I think France will very much dictate, while Morocco sit back and look to strike on the counter. In cash, this means that I want to be heavier on the France side and likely will be 5-1 or 4-2.
After deciding on captain, I think you have to decide if you want to fit another French attacker or if you want to go to the other side with set man Hakim Ziyech ($8,600) for Morocco. Since I believe they will dictate play and therefore have most of the floor points in this one, I am inclined to add in one of Ousmane Dembele ($8,800) or Olivier Giroud ($9,600). Dembele is cheaper and has a much better floor, and is who I prefer in cash of the two. Jamming in three French attackers leaves you needing to find some value pieces. If starting, Yahia Attiat Allah ($3,200) makes a lot of sense as possibly your only piece from Morocco. He has looked really good when given the opportunity and is super cheap on this slate, though with Noussair Mazraoui healthy, he may not start again. If he isn't in, then I lean back toward France with Ibrahima Konate ($3,400) or Youssouf Fofana ($3,400). Both make for fine punts as Konate has got it done via defensive stats when in, while Fofana is could start over Adrien Rabiot ($6,200), who missed training Tuesday.
TOURNAMENT STRATEGY
As always in tournaments you can go many different ways, but you need to pick a game script with each lineup if you want to give it the most upside to get to the top of tournaments. As mentioned above, I expect France to dictate possession which means even in lineups I build around a Morocco win, I wouldn't want to be heavy on that side. I still would likely want a 3-3 or 4-2 France build.
The reasoning behind this is that if France are the team putting pressure on for most of the game, they will get a lot of floor points. If I build for Morocco to win, I certainly want goalkeeper Yassine Bounou ($4,200). He should get lots of save opportunities and if he gets the win on top of that he will pay off this price. In this game script, I want to pick out the goal involvement for Morocco, not necessarily build around floor plays. This makes Youssef En-Nesyri ($5,400), Sofiane Boufal ($6,600), Hakim Ziyech ($8,200), Achraf Hakimi ($6,800) and if starting, Attiat Allah all in play for me. France have not kept a clean sheet all tournament so I definitely think Morocco can get one here.
In France heavy builds where you think they win I would stay away from Yassine Bounou ($4,200) unless you think he gets tons of saves to pay off his low price. We have saw this work out before, even if he is your only Moroccan piece. He could grab a lot of saves and even though he concedes some goals, he could still be the highest scoring player from their side. Hugo Lloris ($7,600) isn't a priority for me due to the fact that he hasn't kept a clean sheet and won't see the shot volume to make up for giving up one. Jules Kounde ($5,000) is an intriguing value option at full-back along with Theo Hernandez ($7,200), who sports upside but is definitely volatile. I don't see a way around captaining one of the French top four in this script and lean toward Mbappe, bouncing back with a massive game in this spot.
