Here’s our Champions League fantasy article where our UCL pundit Akis Goulioumis reviews Matchday 1 an sets out his team for Matchday 2. Akis finished with an overall rank of 5k last season
Champions League fantasy – Our UCL pundit Akis Goulioumis reviews matchday 1 and his team for MD2
Hi everyone,
Firstly if you’re unsure of the basics of the game here’s a link to my original strategy article of last week
In my first UCL fantasy article I was saying that Champions League has become a league of “giants” against “dwarfs” and on that basis my core strategy playing the Champions League fantasy game will be centred on a 5-2-3 formation, hoping that the “giants” will easily keep clean sheets and the big bankers in the attack could do what they are paid for.
Despite my… not so great Matchday-1 points (which are 72 btw) I believe that the above will prove to be a good strategy going forward. Scores like 3-0, 3-0, 0-5, 6-0, 0-4, 3-0 could not emphasise more that the “super powers” of European football are going to score big when the fixtures/opponent allow them to do so.
It is interesting to monitor the Matchday-1 individual performance of the most expensive forwards of the 6 big-favourites in the competition (Barca, Real Madrid, Man City, Man U, Paris SG, Bayern Munchen) which I believe it answers whether it worth overspending in attack.
Even more interesting is the performance of the defenders of the big teams, confirming that overspending in Defence is certainly more cost effective than investing in medium priced midfielders. The later is enhanced from the fact that full-back formations are back for good in European football (4-3-3 or 3-4-2-1) allowing attacking full-backs to be heavily involved in the attack phase and increase their chances for an assist or even a goal.
Strategy going forward and the “hits” issue
I am pretty sure that the above sets a reasonable guideline for effectively playing the game. What I am definitely not sure for is how to deal with the fixtures’ ease during the season.
I have seen that many fantasy players choose a “mega hits” strategy building teams that heavily focus on specific big teams (basis to their fixture ease) and then using multiple 4p hits to rebuild their team for the following Matchday. This is definitely risky, but seems that works better in the UCL Fantasy. The reason is simple; a clean sheet or a forwards’ hat-trick is more “guaranteed” compared (let’s say) to FPL due to the chaotic quality difference between a Chelsea and a Qarabag or a Real and an APOEL.
I have decided to stick to my original (more conservative) plan and try to keep hits to a minimum possible, always having in mind that a 4p hit is not so painful due to the substitution format of the game and the peculiarities described above.
For those interested, here is my most updated Matchday-2 draft team with 8 pts hit due to Pogba and Salvio injuries :(
Best of luck everyone!
Akis. you can follow Akis on twitter here
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