UCL Fantasy 22/23 expert season review

We take a look at a UCL Fantasy 22/23 expert season review. Focusing on regular Fantasy Football Scout and Fantasy Football Community contributor @FPLReaction’s most recent campaign as he highlights what went right and what went wrong.

The Twitter community is full of some of the most experienced fantasy managers around and in that respect @FPLReaction’s is one of them. Covering his UCL Fantasy 22/23 expert season review could give huge insight to how one of the most successful managers around operates.

Introduction

Hey guys, @FPLReaction (Louis) here. What a season! Its been full of ups and downs. From being second in the world to the drop back down, I will highlight some of the best and worst moments from each round as we look back on my journey.

Matchday 1

Matchday 1 was one probably one of my favourite Matchdays of the campaign. Two of my biggest hauls came via Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski (18) and Benfica defender Alejandro Grimaldo (20). I went heavy on Ajax as well which paid off hugely.

My Dortmund assets also came in with great scores. In my experience it is very important to get off to a great start and that is exactly what happened with a huge 132 points.

Matchday 2

I had always pre-planned to use my limitless in Matchday 2 and although hesitant as the round drew closer I stuck with the plan. Teams like PSG, Inter and Chelsea all had great fixtures and so I invested in their players.

The biggest success was captaincy. Not many managers in UCL Fantasy owned Inter defender Denzel Dumfries. The wing-back ended up scoring and keeping a clean sheet and with the armband, it helped hugely towards my Matchday. My limitless ended with 91 points and it was Chelsea midfielder Raheem Sterling who saved it right at the end of the week.

Matchday 3

Ahead of the campaign I targeted Matchday 3 and 4 for the use of my wildcard. During that period teams had great back-to-back fixtures against much weaker opponents. The biggest blunder during entire campaign was backing Sporting players and as you can see it contributed towards my 83 point total.

Although 83 points sounds low, it was actually a good score this week and helped me to climb to second in the world. Bayern and Liverpool assets were also very helpful in Matchday 3 amongst others.

Matchday 4

Matchday 4 arrived and it was time to see if the wildcard paid off. Although many see the wildcard as a long term strategy it can also be used to attack two Matchdays. The Liverpool and Bayern assets continued to do well here.

One team who had a disappointing round was Club Brugge. The Belgians had a great previous round as you can see from Matchday 3 but could not repeat it. I also brought in the increasingly brilliant Napoli midfielder Kvicha Kvaratskhelia. He claimed a huge 13 point return will ultimately saved my Matchday.

The wildcard was not as useful as I wanted it to be but thankfully I remained amongst the top managers in the game.

Matchday 5

Matchday 5 was when I had to shift my focus to Benfica and PSG assets who had both played each other twice in a row. This was another reason I wanted to wildcard for Matchday 3 and 4. I brought in the likes of Benfica defender Alejandro Grimaldo, midfielder Joao Mario and PSG striker Kylian Mbappe and they all delivered.

Liverpool midfielder Mohamed Salah continued to prove invaluable in the group stages whilst many decided to ignore him. It was another poor week from Sporting and Club Brugge assets who could have been huge differentials for me if they were successful. In the end I hit 73 points which gave me a big rank drop and I went into Matchday 6 needing something special.

Matchday 6

The Sporting assets let me down again and they really did dampen the entirety of the group stages for my team. However, Matchday 6 was a very successful week. My Benfica and PSG assets came in clutch yet again and Mbappe really helped propel me as my captain.

Ajax midfielder Mohammed Kudus proved an excellent asset for me and one I will remember for a long time. He managed a huge 14 points when not many managers around me owned him. Another player consistently under-owned amongst the best managers was Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian was detrimental to my rank during the group stages.

I finished Matchday 6 with 93 points which helped my back into the top 500 players in the world.

Matchday 7

The Round of 16 came and I wanted to heavily back the teams I thought would do well. One of those teams was Benfica whom had the easiest tie of the round against Club Brugge. That tactic paid off and the Benfica assets did really well.

Another team I wanted to heavily back was Napoli against Frankfurt and they also performed as expected. I did not want to come into the round without differentials and I felt that both Ben Chilwell and Jude Bellingham fit the bill. Unfortunately both players blanked but I still managed 85 points which was pretty good.

Matchday 8

The second round of the last 16 was one my biggest scores of the campaign. Real Madrid did well against Liverpool and the Benfica and Napoli assets continued to do as I had hoped. The biggest points haul of the entire competition came and I ended up on the right side of it due to Manchester City striker Erling Haaland.

Haaland managed an incredible 50 points as captain and many managers catastrophically avoided the move. His return would have been hugely damaging and quite frankly season ending for those that chose to avoid this move. I finished the round of 16 still sitting amongst the top 500 managers in the world.

Matchday 9

The quarter finals arrived and many were left disappointed. Benfica were drawn against Inter and I expected a much stronger performance from their assets. That wasn’t to be. Another team that let many down were Napoli who looked very strong but slumped against fellow Italian side AC Milan.

Looking back I should have invested more into the Real Madrid backline but I just did not trust them defensively. All in all, other than a successful captaincy and a couple of other returns it was a poor round for me finishing on just 64 points.

Matchday 10

I stuck to my initial thoughts in the second leg of the quarter finals. I believed that both Benfica and Napoli would turn it around against less convincing opposition but it was not the case. Both of their assets slumped as bad as they did in the first leg.

The quarter-finals were not good rounds for me as I finished Matchday 10 with a poor total of 60 points. Luckily the template was so strong around me that most of my fellow competitors also had a very poor round.

Matchday 11

When it came to the semi-finals many went in heavy with the Inter assets and they came out on top against AC Milan. I tripled up on their defence which hugely paid off and contributed hugely to my score at the end of the round.

Real Madrid midfielder Vinicius Junior and Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne both scored but a lot of managers owned them. Overall it was a very template week. I scored 60 points and was just inside the top 500 ranked managers.

Matchday 12

The second leg of the semi-final was a really good one. I went all in on the Inter defence again, hitting four clean sheets. The things that went wrong this week included captaincy. I captained Inter striker Lautaro Martinez on the first day and he hit eight points but decided to change it to Haaland who blanked the next day.

Another mistake I made was benching Manchester City defender John Stones and taking Inter Hakan Calhanoglu off with six points. One of the biggest moments of the entire campaign for me was Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva’s 17 points. Not many owned Silva in Matchday 12 and his massive return helped me into the top 300 ranked managers.

Matchday 13

Playing the final round was the plan because I was within my top 500 rank target. I went heavy on the Manchester City attack like most managers whilst also having cover from their defence with three of their options.

Manchester City won the game 1-0 but the one attacker I did not own, Rodri, scored the winning goal and claimed the player of the match award. Either way I finished the season where I wanted to be and beat my previous season rank. I ended the season 278th in the world.

Things I learned along the way

Preparing a plan and sticking with it. This worked hugely for me. Although I hesitated with all of my initially written out plans as the Matchdays arrived I stuck to the plan and it paid off.
Being aggressive with chips. Playing my chips in the group stages as usual gave me success. I tend to use the chips in the groups when the ceiling is much higher.
I think I will look to take more risks in the latter stages of the competition in future. Once I am in my top 500 target I usually play it very safe which can sometimes feel boring. In future, I think I will look to move for more differentials, singular and combinations.