Best Real Madrid Picks in UCL Fantasy

UCL Fantasy returns for Matchday 7, after a long winter period of pause. We will continue to focus on different teams ahead of the new round. In this article, we’ll consider team and player form, fixture difficulty and stats to determine who best best Real Madrid picks in UCL Fantasy are.

Picking out the best Real Madrid picks in UCL Fantasy could be hugely important this week. Los Blancos are beginning to show much more consistency recently, and they also have a very appealing fixture ahead, so picking the best options could help bring Matchday 7 success.

Form

Real Madrid produced mixed form at the start of their season – dropping points on three occasions in their first three La Liga matches and opening two Champions League fixtures. Their form saw them well behind La Liga rivals Barcelona and plunge to 20th Champions League.

But, after battling their way through several key player injuries, Los Blancos seem to be gathering some momentum. As well as seeing off Atalanta in their most recent European match, they have also won their last five matches on the bounce. During that period Carlo Ancelotti’ men have kept three clean sheets and scored a huge 17 goals.

Upcoming Fixture

UCL Fantasy managers have long avoided Real Madrid assets since the beginning of the campaign due to their inconsistencies. However, in their current form heading into the next fixture, it could be very difficult to maintain that.

A lot of Real Madrid’ appeal this week, comes from the fact they host Salzburg at home. The Austrian side started their European campaign woefully – losing all but one of their six matches, scoring just three and conceding a huge 18 goals in the meantime.

Salzburg are evidently one of the best teams you can target, both from a defensive and offensive perspective, so which Real Madrid assets should we pick.

Defensive Assets

Real Madrid, although very efficient offensively, are yet to convince at the back. In fact, they have played six Champions League matches and failed to pick up a single clean sheet.

For those still convinced of their defensive potential this week against Salzburg, then they have three options who have played regularly as of late. One of them is goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (€5.7m), who has shown incredible shot stopping qualities, which includes saves from penalty kicks.

The other two options we could could consider are full-back Lucas Vazquez (€4.4m) and centre-back Antonio Rudiger (€6m). The former however, picked up a yellow card in his previous match, which means he will miss Matchday 7. The latter, although short when it comes to ball recoveries, has scored two goals in just six Champions League appearances, suggesting he has attacking threat.

Based on the above, those looking to buy into the Real Madrid backline could opt for either Courtois or Rudiger, it largely depends on which position you need to fill.

Attacking Assets

Three players standout when taking into account both minutes played and attacking returns. Those three assets are midfielder Jude Bellingham (€9m), and forwards Vinicius Junior (€11.2m) and Kylian Mbappe (€10.9m).

You can see how they stack up against each other in the table below.

We can see that, although a midfielder, Bellingham has played more minutes than his teammates, and managed an impressive 10 goals and eight assists across both competitions. The fact he is also €1.9m-€2.2m cheaper than both Mbappe and Junior is also hugely significant.

The above could make Bellingham the standout attacking option for UCL Fantasy managers this week. But what about Junior v Mbappe?

Interestingly, there isn’t much between them, which is made even more difficult when factoring in that they both share penalty duty. However, based on his cheaper price-tag, central position, and his rapidly improving form at Real Madrid recently, Mbappe may just come out on top.