How to Win UCL Fantasy

The Champions League is back for another season and it returns with some massive changes along with it! To prepare for its return we take a look at how to win UCL Fantasy. To do this we have brought in some experts to reveal their top tips.

UCL Fantasy requires preparation, aggressiveness, luck and an array of other different factors when trying to become successful. Knowing how to action this can be difficult but our experts are here to help. So, lets dive!

@UCL_Beercules

My advice for UCL Fantasy managers would be:

1. Get 15 starters: Having a good bench of players that are likely to start is important to maximize points in this game.
2. Ignore ownership: I never understand why many content creators pay so much attention to effective ownership and frighten managers about not owning a highly-owned player. We want to win this game, don’t we? So, stop caring about ownership and start picking players that you believe will get you the most points.
3. Get cheap keepers: I always go cheap concerning my keepers. The reason is that this is the only position where you always get two chances. While your other subs can come in for multiple players (and therefore cover multiple positions). Your second goalkeeper is always there, when your first choice fails.
4. Think about chip strategy in advance: There are not that many matchdays in UCL fantasy. So, it’s vital to look at your chip strategy before making your drafts. With the new champions league format, chip strategy may become slightly less important and it may not be necessary to define a fixed strategy in advance.
5. Get Tuesday players: I‘m a big advocate of favouring players who play on the first day and I can’t stress this one enough. It’s not only about seeing the line-up or leaks it’s about maximizing points by optimizing substitutions. In the best case, you sub out your three players with the least amount of points. This is a lot easier when you have eight players that have been evaluated than with five. You don’t want to have those “Should I sub this player in for six points” kind of debates.
6. Decide the minimum points at which you stick to your captain: It’s easier to decide whether to stick or twist when you thought about it in advance.
7. Ignore team value: The budget is generous, so I wouldn’t let price changes impact my decisions.
8. Make sure that your two keepers play on different days: Not only on the “obvious” first match day, but on the following ones as well. You don’t want to spend transfers on goalkeepers.
9. Evaluate the decision not the outcome: There’s a huge amount of luck involved, so it’s important to remember this! Yes, it was the right decision to keep J. Mario as captain with 12 points before Haaland scored his 25-point freak result (still hurts a lot though).
10. Play your own game. It’s a game overall, and games are supposed to be fun.

@FplRossoneri

My tips would be:

Forwards usually cost a premium and investing in three 10m+of them is always a good idea, the likes Mbappe, Haaland, Kane etc will be highly owned from MD1.
Always try to have two good captains playing on different days to have a chance to get maximum points even if a captain blanks on the first day of a Matchday.
Unlike in FPL, you can make manual subs so it’s vital to have a strong 15 man squad!
Don’t ignore CDMs as they have a higher ceiling because of ball recovery points.
Keep in mind POTM potential players, KDB, Kante, Vini Jr, Kane are some players who always end up in the POTM conversations.

@Big4FPL

My general tips for UCL Fantasy would be:

Build your team around your chips – the UCL game is a short format which means the chips are more valuable and offer a chance to swap your team around more regularly. Don’t build a squad for all eight rounds of the league phase if you’re going to be resetting your team with a WC in one week or dodging rough fixtures with LL in another week!
Invest in your bench – unlike other games, the UCL format allows you to manually sub out players who have played and didn’t hit the returns you wanted. This means having a squad that plays across all MD’s is vitally important. That’s not to say a 4m/4.5m asset isn’t worth buying – but just make sure they’re a starter.
Start with captains – similar to subs, you can change your captain each day if unhappy with your prior captain returns. This means having a squad foundation with the best (or a punt) captain for each day gives you more chances of hitting a haul.
Ball recoveries are underrated – defenders like Grimaldo, TAA and Hakimi will always be amazing, the same goes for your midfielders in Salah, Bellingham etc. But ball recovery machines like Schlotterbeck, Rodri and Van Dijk will also give you healthy scores knowing their floor is 3/4 points. But, they could match an attacking return in recoveries alone.
Take a punt! The UCL is a short format so don’t stress on template and safe picks. Any one player could haul in a certain week and hitting these punts is key. Yes, make sure you hit that Haaland hattrick, but it will be the Galeno brace, Grimaldo goal and clean sheet, and a Rodri goal and assist alongside his recoveries that really give you an edge. This will always need a bit of luck in predicting correctly.

@FPL_Crisk

I think:

This is the ideal season for a new player. The UCL has drastically changed, meaning that veterans will have to learn how to deal with the new format as well. This will even the playing field a lot more.
Despite disliking the new format overall, I think it is better suited for a fantasy game. Originally there was very little variance in strategy, with chips usually being used during the group stage to better deal with the symmetrical calendar. Now each team faces eight different opponents, making the first eight Matchdays more similar to FPL.
With the league phase I would treat it like the last eight Gameweeks of FPL. The main change of pace will happen during the knockouts. This is where players will have to start focusing on shorter term results.
During the knockouts Matchdays tend to have a lower average ceiling of points. So, I suggest planning to use at least one chip (if not both) during the group stage (just like it used to happen in the earlier format).

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