With the changes to Thresholds coming on the 30th January, I have been busy transforming my gallery to hopefully give me a good chance in the limited competition. I have previously reviewed the new competition and strategies for player selection here. But if you aren’t aware the thresholds will be awarded in the new Capped Mode 240 competition which requires teams to have a combined last 15 average of 240 points or less. Thresholds are rewarded for scoring 250 points, without XP or Captain bonuses.

As discussed in my strategy article, I will be focusing on players who have ‘Predictable Volatility’ in scoring – I would rather not be trading in and out of players on a weekly basis as that cost of doing that may outweigh the rewards. As there are no XP bonuses in Capped Mode, so I have been happy to take previous season cards for a slight discount as the +5% current season bonus won’t matter regardless.

Why Choose Scotland?

• Small League – With less teams, there are less players and teams to get to know. It also means players will play the worst teams more often to post big scores. Extra games against the stronger teams also helps to drive down the L15 averages.
• English Language Media – Being an English (only) speaker, having the media being in english helps a lot. It makes it a lot easier to keep up with the latest injury news and transfer rumours.
• Great Sorare Specific Content – There are some great Sorare resources for the Scottish Premiership. The A View from the Dugout podcast is very informative and a fun listen. I would recommend checking out there reviews of each team they completed before the World Cup. The two hosts, @ScotlandSorare and @Sorareonabudget are great follows on twitter as well!

On top of those reasons, I had some Hearts players already from building a stack for the quiet post-World Cup game weeks. I’ve added to that to give a range of options at each position that I think should help me compete for thresholds and let me enter an extra team in other tournaments. For the most part I’ve stayed away from the Old Firm players, partly due to price but also because playing against an Old Firm team in 18% of games helps to drive down L15 averages.

Goalkeepers

My first pick-up was Craig Gordon when building a Hearts stack. I liked his chances of getting more clean sheets after the World Cup break. Gordon suffered a gruesome broken leg on Christmas Eve and will miss the rest of the season. At 40 years old retirement is a question, but Gordon appears to have confirmed he will look to return next year.

I picked up Shamal George from Livingston when he prices was depressed from missing a couple of games. Livingston have a really strong home/away split in their performances keeping 3 of their 4 clean sheets at home and conceding 3+ once at home and twice away. This is reflected in George’s scores, having scored 60+ in 4 home games and 1 away game. Outside of his one away clean sheet, he has failed to score more than 35.20 points in any of his other 5 away appearances. He will be a strong option anytime Livingston play at home.

Motherwell’s Liam Kelly is my third goalkeeper, he hasn’t had the best of season’s SO5 wise but he does have is better scoring history in previous seasons. Against the weaker teams in the league, I still think he has the potential to score clean sheets. As an added bonus, Kelly looks to be in line to play for Scotland with Craig Gordon’s injury giving a bit of extra utility.

My final goalkeeper, Carljohan Eriksson, is a bit more of a speculative option. After playing 9 games earlier in the season Eriksson has been benched in favour of Mark Birighitti for the last 7 games. Dundee have kept 3 clean sheets in that time, so Eriksson may have to wait for his next chance. If he does it get a chance, he will add an option for the few games they play one of the other lower half teams. At a price of just 0.0040 ETH, he was well worth a gamble.

Other Options: Like Livingston, Aberdeen have a very strong home/away split making Kelle Roos a solid choice for capped mode. For the time being, Joe Hart is also a good option with his L15 average being depressed by some poor showings in the Champions League. It one last forever though and Hart is a very high priced option for a limited card. Craig Gordon’s replacement, Zander Clark, is another solid option.

Defenders

Despite being 34 Michael Smith remains a strong player for Hearts operating as a right wing back. He wasn’t purchased with capped mode in mind, but he is still a solid option with the ability to post up 60+ scores without decisive actions. He also gets the odd rest game, when he appears from the bench which helps to keep his average a little bit lower.

Andrew Considine is another defender with the ability to post big scores without needing decisive actions. His L15 is pretty high at the moment, at 51, but he is putting up strong scores even when St Johnstone concede. There isn’t obvious predictability in his scoring, which may make him a trickier option to play than others but playing him in games where he has a strong chance at a clean sheet should be solid.

Sean Kelly has a defender card, but has played a lot as a defensive midfielder for Livingston this season (on a side note; he’s also the brother of GK Liam Kelly. His scores reflect the home/away split Livingston see as team with him averaging 56 points at home and just 40 points away from home this season (L15: 48 points). His decisive actions also tend more to home games with a 3:1 home:away split. He will be a great option to stack with Shamal George when Livi play at home.

My final defender is Australian wing-back Aziz Behich, currently playing for Dundee United. Behich has been playing excellently with a strong all-around game as well as adding decisive actions for club and country. There is an element to a home/away split with Behich scoring 60+ at home 4 times versus just 2 time away. Like Liam Kelly, adding some international utility is a nice bonus to help field line-ups during international breaks.

Other Options: As with goalkeepers, Aberdeen are a strong team to target. Liam Scales (on loan from Celtic) jumps out as the top option – he has great home/away splits. If I was looking to add another defender he would be top of the list.

Midfielders

First up is Hearts’ Andy Halliday who has played mostly as a left wing back this season, but has also seen some time in the centre of midfield. I didn’t buy Halliday with capped mode in mind, and his L15 is a little inflated by some strong Europa Conference performances. However, I think he can still be useful against weaker oppositions.

Cameron Devlin is the second Hearts’ midfielder in the squad. Again he wasn’t bought with Capped Mode in mind, and he might not be the best option in this game mode. There isn’t a lot of predictability to his scoring, and his average is again inflated by Europa Conference games. His L15 should drop pretty significantly over the next few weeks making him a more interesting option.

On the other side of Edinburgh, Hibernian’s Joe Newell is a really solid midfielder who consistently provides good all-around scores. He does have a high L15 average, but after his next game a 92 score will be dropping out so that should come down a little bit. Hibs have been on a poor run of form of late – if/when that comes to an end Newell could see an uptick in form. In games Hibs have won, Newell has scored 60+ in 4 of 7 games.

Daniel Armstrong of Kilmarnock joined as a reward from Challenger Europe and he’s been a nice surprise. Armstrong has scored decisive actions in 6 games this season, 5 of which have been home games. He’s got a solid all around game as well, leaving him with a solid floor when he doesn’t grab a decisive.

My third Livingston player is Jason Holt who again benefits from strong home/away splits. I discussed him in detail in my review of the threshold changes and capped mode.

Other Options: Cristian Montano of Livingston is a nice option, who has some nice home/away splits. Josh Campbell at Hibernian rotates between starting and making sub appearances, when he does start he puts up some solid all around scores. At Aberdeen, Ylber Ramadani is another option with nice home away splits who can put up good all-around scores from the centre of midfield.

Forwards

I started off my forwards with a couple of Hearts players, looking on the budget side I avoided Lawrence Shankland and took his two starting wingers Joshua Ginnelly and Barrie McKay. Ginnelly is a decisive-dependant option, who can put up good scores when he gets one but won’t make it much above 40 points if he doesn’t.

Barrie McKay is a more exciting option who has been on a poor run of form this season, at least where Sorare is concerned. His all-around scores have remained solid this season, but after 3 games with decisives to start the season, he has only managed two in his 23 appearances since. When the decisive’s come, McKay can smash his L15 of 44 comfortably.

I picked up Dundee United player Tony Watt as an interesting budget option. Watt’s price is low due to him rotating between the starting line-up and the bench and this helps us in capped mode, if we can predict when he will start. When he does start, Watt has performed well racking up 5 decisive actions this season.

For my final option I wanted a more premium option at forward and landed on Daizen Maeda from Celtic. Playing for Celtic gives Maeda plenty of good opportunities to score decisive actions. He also gets rotated fairly regularly which helps to keep his L15 average low. Price wise he came in slightly cheaper than some of the guaranteed starters at less strong clubs (0.025 ETH), so I think he also provides solid value for money and adds some international utility to boot.

Other Options: With the introduction VAR to the Scottish Premiership, the league has been averaging 2 penalties in every 3 games. So finding strikers who are their teams penalty taker is a good bet. Lawrence Shankland of Hearts is an obvious choice who scores plenty from open play as well. As does Bojan Miovski of Aberdeen (again we can benefit from their home/away splits. Kevin Nisbet has just returned from injury for Hibernian and has already bagged a couple of goals and an assist.

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