Welcome to Eliteserien Fantasy 2024! It’s brilliant to see so many newcomers to the game, so I thought I’d try to put together a beginner’s guide of sorts to help get you oriented. Just bear in mind that I am very much included in the ‘beginner’ bracket myself…

I won’t spend much time covering the game format here as it should be immediately familiar to FPL players, with just a few twists on the chips:

• ‘Attack! Attack!’ – double points for all your forwards
• ‘Rich Uncle’ – a free hit chip with unlimited budget for that Gameweek
• The self-explanatory ‘Two Captains’

The main aim of this article is to provide a basic orientation with Eliteserien’s top (and bottom) clubs and an overview of the initial schedule, which features early blanks and doubles.

BOOKIES’ ODDS TO WIN TITLE

So, first up, let’s have a look at the odds of winning the title this season, to give a rough idea of the expected hierarchy:

1. Bodø/Glimt 2.15
2. Molde 4.00
3. Brann 4.50
4. Viking 15
5. Rosenborg 21
6. Lillestrøm 25
7. Sarpsborg 30
8. Tromsø 100
9. Odd 150
10. Strømsgodset 150
11. Haugesund 300
12. HamKam 300
13. Fredrikstad 300
14. Sandefjord 300
15. Kristiansund 500
16. KFUM Oslo 750

Bodø/Glimt and Molde, fresh off their European adventures during the offseason for Norway, occupy the top two spots. A Bodø/Glimt victory would secure their fourth title in the last five seasons, while Molde won in 2022 & 2019.

Brann have had a much more turbulent recent history: third in 2018, relegated to the First Division in 2021, promoted in 2022 and second on their return to the Eliteserien last year.  

Of the three promoted sides, minnows KFUM Oslo are making their first-ever appearance in the Eliteserien and this is clearly reflected by the bookies’ odds. Kristiansund return after just one season in the First Division, while Fredrikstad are fancied to be a slight cut above at joint 11^th.

FIXTURE DIFFICULTY

Next, let’s have a look at a fixture ticker for the first eight Gameweeks (source: https://www.viewfantasystats.com/eliteserien/fdr-planner/)

The predicted top three – Bodø, Molde and Brann – also sit atop the fixture ticker for the opening eight Gameweeks.

A Double Gameweek 3 for Brann and Molde, aligned with appealing fixtures before and after, makes these two clubs an excellent place to begin your draft. If your initial strategy is to attack the Double Gameweek, you might also want to consider supplementing Brann & Molde double/triple-ups with the mid-priced options from Odd and HamKam. 

EARLY CHIP?

The early Double Gameweek also presents an opportunity to deploy one of your chips. Since Molde and Brann players are quite expensive, Rich Uncle could be an option to enable a frontline that includes last season’s top scorer Bård Finne (BRA, 11.5m) and Molde talisman Fredrik Gulbrandsen (11m).

Alternatively, ‘Rich Uncle’ could be held for Double Gameweek 10, which includes Bodø, Brann, Rosenborg and Tromsø.

‘Attack! Attack!’ is another option for Double Gameweek 3, as the current template frontline appears to be Finne, Gulbrandsen and Kirkevold (HAM, 6m). Odd forward Børven (7.5m) looks a promising alternative to Kirkevold if you want to triple up on doublers. Viking’s Salvesen (8.5m) has been banging in preseason, although tough fixtures Bodø and Brann in GWs 2 & 3 may be slightly off-putting. 

ATTACK V DEFENCE

As always, when using a fixture ticker with just one colour per game, it’s worth considering where defensive difficulty and attacking difficulty are flattened.

To help identify the teams which might be, for example, a good fixture for your attackers but a bad fixture for your defenders, I’ve also put together a colour-coded chart of goals and goals conceded last season:

The left-hand column presents the team in order of goals conceded to highlight fixture difficulty for attackers, while the right-hand column orders teams by goals scored as a metric for defensive fixture difficulty.

It’s worth noting that Viking and Sarpsborg 08 look like quite appealing fixtures for your attackers but much less so for your defenders. At the opposite extreme, Haugesund and Strømsgodset appear to be pretty solid defences but struggle in attack.

WHERE TO FIND STATS

As for the players, I’m far from the level of familiarity required to write a comprehensive watchlist. However, the official Fantasy site does allow you to sort by goals, assists, clean sheets, bonus points etc, which can be supplemented by further data from sites like Transfermarkt and Whoscored.

I’ve also come across a massively helpful pre-season minutes tracker here (it also notes goals and assists).

COMMUNITY MINI-LEAGUES

That’s pretty much it from me.

I’ll just conclude with a couple of mini-leagues to join (thanks to Mullered in Maenam and Mince N Tatties for running these):

• https://en.fantasy.eliteserien.no/leagues/auto-join/ciowdo

• https://en.fantasy.eliteserien.no/leagues/auto-join/i46qs6

See you below the line!