Breaking Down The McDonalds Bonus

Normally the idea of dissecting what McDonalds has to offer would prompt a gag reflex – just get the Big Mac down you – don’t ask questions. However, when it comes to putting their Fantasy World Cup offering under the microscope, we’re more than a little interested. Much healthier – despite what the other half may say – so join us as we waltz through the golden arches and try to get to grips with the new Bonus Points system we’ve been dealt…

What will follow (having sourced all kinds of stats, played around with chalkboards, put in a McFlurry of work) is an approximation of what to expect from your fantasy squads these next four weeks in the official Fifa/McDonalds game – the Scout game of choice. We’ll be taking the Bonus Point rules and using the last Premier League season as our guinea pig, however, let’s remind ourselves of the rules in question first:

Attacking bonus

For every 2 balls delivered into the area.” [ball entry into attacking penalty area whilst maintaining possesion: player making run, player passing, player receiving, cross] 1 point

On inspection this looks like a fairly understandable reward to fantasy managers, the most incisive of players on the pitch will be rewarded for their positive actions in and around the 18 yard box this World Cup. Collectively, we will call these box plays.

As a caveat, we have to point out that we haven’t been able to source all relevant information. Our pool of data is collected from stats for receiving and making passes, as well as crosses. We don’t have data for successful dribbles into the box so this is an unknown, meaning that our attacking bonus totals will likely be greater in the McDonalds/FIFA game than in the examples we will offer.

“For every 5 balls given away by players” [total lost balls. Sum of wrong passes - except wrong clearances - and losing possession with tackles suffered] -1 point

Fantasy managers are going to want to select players who don’t fritter the ball away needlessly, not only will they need to be able to hold their own in a challenge but consistent passing looks a must.

Defending bonus

“For recovery of a ball.” [the sum of gaining possession through tackles and clearances completed] 1 point

The defensive rewards are simpler to tot up, no need to get out the measuring tape on whether or not that pass has made it into the box – just chalk up an added point to your fantasy team for every successful tackle or clearance.

“For every 3 fouls committed” [a foul where a free kick is rewarded] -1 point

The same can be said for the negative defensive points, you won’t want to be selecting your overly aggressive players as (beyond potential card collection) continuous fouling will leave you out in the lurch.

Okay. So let’s apply all of these new World Cup bonus points to the Premier League season that has recently concluded, choosing a select bunch of players from the old “big four” during one of the best results for each team this season. Let’s start out little tour at Stamford Bridge…

Chelsea 7-0 Stoke

Ashley Cole: 2 box plays, 1 tackle/clearance, 1 foul, 3 losses of possesion. Total bonus: 2 points
Alex (Centre-back): 0 box plays, 3 tackle/clearances, 1 foul, 2 losses of possesion. Total bonus: 3 points
Frank Lampard: 8 box plays, 1 tackle/clearance, 1 foul, 13 losses of possession. Total bonus: 3 points
Didier Drogba: 6 box plays, 0 tackle/clearances, 1 foul, 3 losses of possession. Total bonus: 3 points

Man United 5-0 Portsmouth

Patrice Evra: 3 box plays, 4 tackle/clearances, 1 foul and 10 losses of possesion. Total bonus: 3 points
Jonny Evans: 2 box plays, 6 tackle/clearances, 0 fouls, 3 losses of possesion. Total bonus: 7 points
Luis Nani: 6 box plays, 1 tackle/clearance, 0 fouls, 14 losses of possesion. Total bonus: 2 points
Wayne Rooney: 7 box plays, 0 tackle/clearances, 1 foul, 6 losses of possesion. Total bonus: 2 points

Arsenal 6-2 Blackburn

Gael Clichy: 0 box plays, 3 tackle/clearances, 1 foul, 1 loss of possesion. Total bonus: 3 points
Thomas Vermaelen: 1 box play, 4 tackle/clearances, 0 fouls, 1 loss of possesion. Total bonus: 4 points
Cesc Fabregas: 7 box plays, 0 tackle/clearances, 1 foul, 12 losses of possesion. Total bonus: 1 points
Robin Van Persie: 6 box plays, 0 tackle/clearances, 4 fouls, 6 losses of possesion. Total bonus: 1 points

Liverpool 4-0 Burnley

Glen Johnson: 1 box play, 2 tackle/clearances, 1 foul, 1 loss of possesion. Total bonus: 2 points
Jamie Carragher: 0 box plays, 4 tackle/clearances, 0 fouls, 1 loss of possesion. Total bonus: 4 points
Steven Gerrard: 0 box plays, 2 tackle/clearances, 0 fouls, 12 losses of possesion. Total bonus: 0 points
Fernando Torres: 1 box play, 0 tackle/clearance, 1 foul, 4 losses of possesion. Total bonus: 0 points

As we said from the off, our sources for the attacking bonus were only 3/4 complete so players runs into the box with the ball may prove to be an intrinsically profitable exercise that we unfortunately haven’t been able to detail. However, without record of said footballing action it seems that in high scoring games, even the cream of the crop can make enough mistakes that will prove to counter-act their positive bonus – at least in respect of how McDonalds/FIFA would dish out their fantasy points.

What we can also see from the four fixtures above is that it looks like the defenders, and in particular the centre-backs, may just be the players to soak up the bonus points over the next 4 weeks.

Tackles and clearances could well be a potential fantasy goldmine this summer, so we figured we would dig a little deeper into just what kind of points these bonus may be able to bring you…

The table above shows (amongst other interesting little tid-bits) the average tackles per game of the five most frequent Premier League tacklers who will be present in South Africa. Perhaps that £8m price-tag shouldered on Javier Mascherano starts to make (at least a little bit) more sense to us all. There’s also a distinct lack of defenders in the top tacklers, which only validates how important that defensive midfielder marshaling in front of the defence has become for football clubs world-wide. Perhaps one or two of midfield quota could be best fielded by less of the flair, and more of the grafters.

Those figures are only for tackles too, so while managers could very well see four or five points added to their score each game, any clearances will only prove to bolster those handy returns even more.

So with all of the above in our thoughts, it begs a question in our – and hopefully your minds too – can the cheap defenders match the big bucks? I say yes.

The table above seems to agree too. The results shown are the best defensive returns from four defenders in the upper echelons of the world rankings, and the same from four teams that can be classified as lesser lights on the world scene as a whole.

Here’s one big caveat however…
(*) ISM (the folks who run the fantasy game in question) have kindly informed us that headed clearances do not count towards scoring. So while we have the data required to seperate those details in our four Premier League games, the figures that we have for internationals come combined so results might not necessarily be entirely indicative of a players potential point scoring.

Like any other game a sprinkling of luck will always be required, not every cheap defender will be so gracious with the points – if you can get a little lucky and litter your defence with the right Honduran/North Korean/etc defender for the upcoming tournament – there is no reason at all that they can’t match the score of defenders worth many times more than them,with or without the help of headed clearances.

As you can see over the expanse of information, figures, tables and chairs that you have just heartily devoured – this is not an exact science. There are caveats as mentioned, and we have tried to get to grips as best we can with just what these bonus points could mean when it comes to selecting your fantasy team; but there are shades of gray and gaps of knowledge as we all try to pick up and assimilate to a new way of playing.

We believe all of the above should be a good indicator, but please don’t hunt us down if there is a plethora of attacking bonus points and all the defenders seemingly fly home for winter – this is fresh ground we are forging through, and hopefully we have caught a sneaky glimpse at some potential profit. However, the proof is in the pudding; the delicious pudding that is the World Cup.