UCL Fantasy Best Differentials for Matchday 5

In this article we take a look through some of the UCL Fantasy best differentials for Matchday 5. To help us do that we have brought in expert manager and regular contributor @FplRossoneri who is one of the best in the community at finding them.

Differentials are players with low ownership within the game. They help to gain rank or an edge over your mini-league rivals. Because of this it can be absolutely vital to know who the best UCL Fantasy differentials for Matchday 5 are.

Introduction

Welcome to my UCL Fantasy best differentials for Matchday 5 article. For each Matchday, I go through the best differentials UCL Fantasy managers can target to increase their overall ranks and be a step ahead of their competition.

All players mentioned here will have less than 10% ownership. As always, I want to take the opportunity to thank the wonderful team @FFCommunity for giving me this platform to continue talking about UCL Fantasy. This is a game I absolutely love and have been playing for over 5+ years now.

Lastly, before I get into the meat of it, I am again super thankful to everyone who has supported my articles by giving them a read. The amount of love the MD1-MD4 articles have got thus far means the world to me. I have loved each and every feedback and your support is one of the major reasons I keep going, so thank you, my lovely readers.

Antoine Griezmann, Atletico Madrid, 10.5M, TSB: 5%

In the last year or so Griezmann by far has been Atletico’s best player. He amassed 15 goals and 16 assists in 31 starts last season. This season Griezmann has again shown he can still bang in the goals and be a talisman. So far he has scored nine goals in just 13 starts and looks great up top in partnership with Morata.

Atletico as a team has started off well in La Liga keeping five clean sheets but more importantly, beat city rivals in the Madrid derby a few weeks ago. In MD4 Griezmann got a brace against Celtic at home getting 14 points. Griezmann is currently still only owned by 5% of all UCL Fantasy managers. He could be a great differential option yet again for your squads in MD5.

Ciro Immobile, Lazio, 7.5M, TSB: 1%

I have always been a big admirer of Ciro Immobile for his consistency in terms of getting goals for every team he plays. Except for last season which was plagued by injury, Immobile has scored 15+ goals in each of the last six seasons. This week in Serie A he also became the first player to get 100 goals away from home.

He is Lazio’s talisman who is also on penalty duties and I believe at just 7.5M he can be a great mid priced FWD asset moving forward. Immobile scored the winner in the last MD where Lazio defeated Feyenoord at home getting nine points in the process. He now plays Celtic at home in MD5 and if Lazio are to do well in that game, Immobile should be at he centre of it. Immobile is currently only in 1% of teams and is one of my Uber differentials to look out for in MD5.

Santiago Gimenez, Feyenoord, 7.5M, TSB: 1%

The Mexican has been all the rage in Feyenoord ever since he joined the club last season. Giménez in just over a season of football at Feyenoord has scored 41 goals and assisted another five in 42 matches.

This season in particular he looks to be in fine form. So far he has scored 16 goals in just 13 matches so far. Per 90 mins, Gimenez averages 2.25 shots on target with an xG of 1.05. This again indicates he is Feyenoord’s main man to get the goals. Giménez is at a reasonable price of 7.5M. With just 1% of managers owning him at the moment, he can be another great differential for this MD.

Dmytro Riznyk, Shakhtar Donetsk, 4M, TSB: 3%

It’s not often that you can say that a budget GK costing just 4M playing for Shakhtar Donetsk kept a clean sheet vs Barcelona in the Champions League. But, that is exactly what happened in MD4. Owners were surprisingly rewarded for their faith in the budget GK of dreams in MD4.

Riznyk now plays Royal Antwerp in MD5 at home. Given his recent showing, I do expect a potential clean sheet. He will also play on the first day of this upcoming MD. So, even if he doesn’t get points you can always sub him out. Riznyk is only owned by 3% of UCL Fantasy managers and thus he gets a mention in my Differential article for MD5.

Gabriel, Arsenal, 6M, TSB: 4%

Gabriel is slowly but surely making that starting CB position at Arsenal his own after an up and down start the season where Arteta was benching him. Arsenal would ideally like to confirm qualification to the knockouts as soon as possible. They have a great chance to do it when Lens comes to visit in MD5. Arsenal lost to Lens in MD2 away from home which paper was a huge shock at the time. Because of that I assume Arsenal would want to take revenge in the upcoming MD.

Gabriel has started most of the recent matches so his place should be quite secure. I do see a great opportunity for Arsenal to keep a clean sheet ahead. This makes Gabriel with only 4% ownership a good Differential option for your teams in MD5.

Hakan Calhanoglu, Inter , 7.1M, TSB: 6%

It’s safe to say Hakan has turned a leaf after moving to Inter from arch-rivals AC Milan a few seasons ago. He now plays a more deep-lying midfielder role. There he orchestrates the midfield for Inter Milan as opposed to the attacking midfielder role he was used to at Milan and Leverkusen before that.

Inzaghi has been successful so far in his attempt to change Hakan’s role. This has contributed to some great performances in the recent past. He has started Inter’s every game in Serie A getting five goals and one assist. He is also their main penalty taker which is an added advantage from a fantasy perspective. This season per 90 minutes Hakan has created on average 1.92 chances and has a passing accuracy of 92.3% which is among the best for midfielders.

Inter Milan will be playing Benfica in MD5. Given how dismal Benfica have been this season, I see a good opportunity to pick Hakan who is only 6% owned.

Kingsley Coman, Bayern, 8M, TSB: 2%

Over the years, Coman has come to really impress me as a football player given how he almost always shows up for his team when it is required the most. This season he along with Sane, Musiala and Harry Kane have formed quite a quartet in the attack front for Bayern Munich.

In 10 starts in the Bundesliga, Coman has amassed three goals and three assists which does indicate he is in decent form. In terms of per 90 minutes, Coman averages 0.66 of xG+xA which indicates over a full match it is likely he is involved in a goal. He also creates around 2.66 chances per game.

Bayern will play FC Copenhagen in MD5 at home. With that in mind I expect a good performance, especially from the likes of Coman who is only 2% owned in UCL Fantasy. He is an easy inclusion into my UCL Fantasy Best Differentials for Matchday 5

Notable Mentions

Here I would like to mention a few other names according to their position, price and ownership respectively who caught my attention and can be considered as good differential options for MD5 as well:

GK – Ivan Provodel (5M) – 2%, David Raya (5M) – 3%, Álex Remiro (4.1M) – 6%
DEF – Oleksandr Zinchenko (5.4M) – 3%, Federico Dimarco (5.5M) – 9%, Rico Lewis (4.6M) – 1%
MID – P Foden (8.0M) – 7%, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (9.5M) – 9%, L Trossard (7.6M) – 4%
FWD – R Leao (9.5M) – 6%, Ricardo Horta (8M) – 0%, A Morata (7.8M) – 7%

That’s it from me for Matchday 5. If you like my work, please do follow me on Twitter @FplRossoneri for more updates and Differential blogs for MD6 and beyond. Also, don’t forget to follow @ffcommunity for all the latest articles regarding #UCLFantasy. Last but not least, don’t miss the deadline, and good luck picking your UCL Fantasy Team for MD5.