Cheap players who actually start

Budget picks under £6m drive squad-building flexibility. The Onside model's pre-tournament value board surfaces players like cheap full-backs from likely-to-advance group winners (Mexico, USA, Canada hosts get the host edge bonus), tier-2 nation midfielders with set-piece duties, and starting strikers from breakout nations like Morocco, Senegal, Ecuador. Full live board updated hourly below.

You can build a 100% starting XI under £75m by going all-budget — but you'll sacrifice 15-20 projected points vs the £100m optimiser. The smarter play: 4-5 budget enablers + premium captain + 2-3 mid-tier 8-9m staples. The /fantasy/best-xi page shows the optimiser's recommended balanced spread.

Cross-reference three signals: (1) confirmed in the official 26-man squad (federations submitted by 4 June); (2) likely starter based on pre-tournament friendlies; (3) team's fixture difficulty for Matchday 1 — favourable fixtures = more chance of points. The Onside value board does all three for you.

For 4-5m budget defenders from teams the model projects to keep clean sheets (Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Germany pre-tournament): yes, they're crucial bench fodder. For 4m defenders from teams the model expects to ship goals: not worth it — pay 1m more for a cleaner team.