How to play Fantacalcio Mantra Experience Serie A Tim 2021/22: a guide for beginners

What is Serie A Fantacalcio Mantra?

Fantacalcio Mantra Experience is inspired by the evolution of fantasy football managerial games and the combination of videogames like “FOOTBALL MANAGER”, delivering a new and more engaging experience that emphasizes the value and the choices of the Fanta Manager.

The main Mantra pillers

The Fantacalcio Classic game rules: all the previous game rules used in Fantacalcio Classic are valid also for Fantacalcio Mantra if it is not clearly stated they are not.

The managerial factor: winning is no longer enough to bet on the best strikers, but you need to create a complete and well-balanced team according to your favorite tactical ideas (4-4-2/4-4-3/3-4-3/4-3-1-2/3-4-2-1).

The tactics factor: the organization of the regular lineup and of the bench is firmly bound to the tactical chances offered by the entire squad available.

Transfer market factor: due to the tactic chosen by the Fanta manager the Transfer market sessions become more important since the new deals are going to take place according to how the teams’ backbone is built.

The Roles

Each player on the list has his specific role and position on the pitch. For instance, Theo Hernandez is DS

• Role D (defender)
• Position S (left = sinistra in italian)

For defenders, there are both roles and positions. For all the other cases only roles are shown.
The football player must be coherently included in one of the gaming schemes (as in the real football formations). There are some players able to fit only one role. Otherwise, a large group of multi-purpose players can be used in more than one role (exactly as it happens for real football players).

The user can find 11 tactical roles. All of the schemes will require the use of 5 defensive players (Dd, Ds, Dc, E, M) and 5 offensive players (C, T, W, A, Pc). This role assortment is fair to get a potential team that is always balanced between each lineup available in the game. This allows 11 tactical solutions, having all the same starting value.

Setting up the formation

The first step of setting up the formation on the pitch is choosing the lineup among the ones available in the game. After this action it is possible to set up 11 players in line with their roles.

Setting Up the bench

The bench is made up of 12 players and one of them has to be a goalkeeper. They can be listed in order of preference, which means starting with the player you prefer being the first in replacement if the change is tactically possible. The bench order is fundamental in the management of substitutions since the order in which players were inserted, leads to the mechanisms of changes. Therefore, the most offensive football players or the ones the Fanta Manager believes are going to have a better performance have to be inserted first.

Substitution

Substitutions will only take place if members of your starting lineup do not register a significant number of minutes to get a rating. Replacing a player is automatic and will prevent you whenever one or more players you picked for your starting formation do not play. It is very useful for last-minute injuries, untimely suspensions, postponed matches.

The number of available substitutions: 5 by default, but this option can be fully customized.

You can only make changes to your starting eleven until 15 minutes before the first game of the first gameweek starts.

The order of players on your bench will also have to be managed. The disposition you select will be the one used when one or more of your starters fail to get on the pitch.

The replacement of the goalkeeper: the goalkeeper in any situation is always the first to be replaced if the regular one is absent.

Mantra Substitution Rules

The default mode of mantra substitutions is called BASIC and is the one that gives priority to the formation selected by the Fanta manager. If the original formation is not reproducible without penalization it is possible to switch automatically to a new lineup without penalizations. If this possibility is not available either there is a switch to a new arrangement involving penalization.

It is possible to choose between two further alternative options:

• EASY OPTION: a mode without formation changes. The initial game module never changes, the system at first reaches solution with no pnealizations and then if it does not succed in this change it adapts to the option with penalizations.
• MASTER OPTION: is a mode that does not give any kind of priority to the base module over the others. The bench order influences the changes. The chosen hierarchical order will be the one that leads to the solutions without penalizations being a priority over the ones with penalitazions. (the most strategic and suitable mode for the users with a full understanding of mantra’s substitution rules).

Substitutions with and without penalization

The substitution in each line-up

Focus on each Mantra Role

• Por – goalkeeper
• Dc – centre defender (regardless of wether they are used in a 3 or 4 defensive line).
• Dd – Right Wing Back in a 4 defensive line.
• Ds — Left Wing Back in a 4 deensive line.
  

E – defensive Outsiders, usually used to complete the three-man defensive line. They can also play stably in the middle of the field, but their coverage tasks use to have priority on the “pushing phase”. They are also those who are lowered in the line of the defenders during the defense phase.

M – defensive Midfielders: are distinguished by their strong defensive skills and for coverage, doubling, and interception phase. These represent by far their main tactical task. It is their characteristics that determine the assignment of this role, it does not depend on the position on the field. However, they often play in the bottom of the midfield before the defensive line.

C – Center Midfielders: participate in the construction and support the offensive phase, supporting the defensive part too. To these categories belong the so-called “movie directors” and the majority of the midfielders, including the box-to-box football players.

Read the full GAME RULES in Italian on fantacalcio.it Ⓡ – all rights reserved

T – Trequartista (attacking Midfielder) is a midfielder with strong offensive skills and little or absent dedication to the defensive phase. The trequartista is a player who usually plays over the fictional line centrally or even wide in a three attacking line with finishing and/or insertion tasks. Few of the midfielders can also fit this category without giving contributions during the defensive phase.

W – Wingers: are pure offensive outsiders employed on the frontline or even in an offensive three line. Unlike the connecting attackers, they aim to the bottom more often and they prefer the assisting phase over the personal conclusion.

A – Attacker (inside forward), on the other hand, the attacker is not purely an area man. This player participates organically in the offensive maneuver playing outside in a trident or supporting a center forward (alongside him or even acting behind him taking the position of a fictional attacking midfielder). Unlike the real wings, the attackers are used in the wing with their feet reversed to allow them to get back towards the center and kick more easily.

Pc – Stricker (center forward) this player is the one who plays at the tip stationing approximately near the penalty area, regardless of whether he has the characteristics of a pure center forward or a point of movement. There are not extremely strict criteria in assigning roles to players. Indeed in general the decisions are the result of a mix of considerations made on a case-by-case basis by our staff:
– Technical and tactical characteristics of the players
– Recent history (maximum two or three years) of the player.
– Tactical context in which the player will play
– Specific weight in the players’ list (basically where possible and where necessary, we try to
be wider than our sleeves with players with second-tier fantasy football appeal).

Please note: it is important to put the spotlight on the fact that the roles assigned by the end of July, therefore they are close to the beginning of the season, are not touched for a whole year. Sometimes odds can be wrong and the possibility of several changes and tactical evolutions of a team or of a single player is physiological, but we can do little about it since we do not know the future events.

FOCUS ON football players roles for Mantra Experience vs Fantcalcio Classic

Mantra Experience Roles

Fantacalcio Classic Roles

Mantra Tips

Mantra game system is highly customizable and the best auction system is the RANDOM method which means the random extraction of all the players in the list on which to bid. This method is by far the most suitable one because it allows you to amend your choices during the auction according to the players purchased and the missed ones. Due to the tactical component of Mantra this auction method acquires decisive importance since it usually creates balanced terms among the participants of the leagues.

The ideal number of participants of a league goes from 8 to 12 teams. It is better
when the league has more participants since with Mantra the dept of the list is better exploited revaluating, for example, the whole list of defensive midfielders (M) often avoided in a classic environment.

The development of the auction with the random method will also tell you which game system (442/443/343/352…) has to be followed. It is considered wise to have at least two players for each position of your basic module. You can add some multi-role football players and others able to implement tactical variations.

With the Mantra game system, there is a minimum of 23 men in the squad including two goalkeepers that must be respected and the ideal number of football players for a squad is 28/30. In general, the squad size should be related to the frequency with whom you can refer to the transfer market. The less frequent the transfer market sessions are the more useful it is to strive for larger squads.

Mantra Modifiers Factors

Mantra includes specific modifiers factors (optional) for users who are wishing to enrich their game experience:

• R – FACTOR – PERFORMANCE FACTOR rewards (or penalties) the overall quality expressed by the team on the pitch by mesuring the number of players with a sufficient basic rating. The more these plaayers has a good rating, the more the team has played well.

• D – FACTOR – DEFENSIVE FACTOR assignes bonus points (or subtracts penalties from the opponent) in the case of a good performance, measured by the average rating of the defensive phase. This puts the spotlight on the 5 defensive men who take part to each scheme, but, in the case of a team whose the number of players with the roles of Dc, Dd, Ds, E and M is bigger than five units, only the five with the best rating will be considered. However in this case, at least 3 of them must have the role of Dc, Dd, Ds. It is also available in the 5 + 1 version with the addition of the goalkeeper. In this configuration the average rating must be made on 6 players.
  R – FACTOR AND D – FACTOR CANNOT BE USED SIMULTANEOUSLY BUT ALTRNATIVE OPTIONS.

The Fair-Play and Captain adds-on are compatible and always optional too.

Read the full GAME RULES in Italian on fantacalcio.it Ⓡ – all rights reserved

Play on fantacalcio.it

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Download the app on Google Play Store

By Giovanni Maggio

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How to Play Fantacalcio Mantra – A Beginner’s Guide