Champions League Fantasy Football: Learn from the top managers
Monday, October 23, 2023
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From chip strategy to the importance of making manual substitutions, what can be learned from how the best Fantasy managers approach the game?
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With a spotlight on those who finished in the top 5,000 last season, UEFA.com outlines some key ingredients to success in #UCLfantasy, presented by Playstation.
From chip strategy to the importance of making manual substitutions, what can be learned from how the best Fantasy managers approach the game?
EARLY CHIP USAGE IS KEY
The vast majority of seasoned Fantasy managers choose to use their chips in the group stage, when there are more fixtures and more potential for high scores. Last season, Matchday 3 was the preferred approach for the top 5,000 managers for both the Limitless (28.9%) and the Wildcard (39.3%) chips. In the 2021/22 campaign, Matchday 2 was the most popular time for both chips, showing that the perceived optimal strategy is not necessarily going to be the same each season.
When did the top 5,000 use their chips in 2022/23?
| Matchday | Playing Limitless | Playing Wildcard |
| 1 | N/A | N/A |
| 2 | 28.5% | 13.8% |
| 3 | 28.9% | 39.3% |
| 4 | 6.9% | 12.3% |
| 5 | 17.5% | 7.6% |
| 6 | 10.3% | 11.7% |
| 7 | N/A | N/A |
| 8 | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| 9 | 0.5% | 2.0% |
| 10 | 0.3% | 0.7% |
| 11 | 0.8% | 6.8% |
| 12 | 0.7% | 0.8% |
| 13 | 3.8% | 2.8% |
With Matchday 3 coming next for #UCLfantasy managers, it will be interesting to see if this season follows suit in terms of chip usage.
ENGAGE WITH YOUR TEAM
While only a quarter of the 2.2 million Fantasy managers last season used either their Wildcard or Limitless boosters throughout the campaign, the vast majority of the top 5k played both chips, which illustrates how integral they can be to a successful rank. When we compare other metrics, the differences are also vast:
Average % of managers who changed their captain between gamedays
Overall: 8.7%
Top 5k: 52.6%
Average % of managers who made manual substitutions between gamedays
Overall: 14.8%
Top 5k: 96.8%
Once again it is clear that the elite managers are more frequently engaged with their teams. On average, over half of the top 5,000 switched their captain after the opening night of a matchday, choosing to roll the dice in an attempt to obtain a higher return.
In terms of manual substitutions, the percentage of the top 5,000 making active changes on any given matchday never dipped below 90%, and the average figure of 96.8% over the course of the season is even higher than the previous campaign. The top managers made full use of their squads and set their line-ups accordingly so that they maximised the points gained from their 15 players.
THE ARMBAND MOST OFTEN GOES TO FORWARDS
Forwards were most commonly captained by the elite managers at the start of ten of the 13 matchdays, continuing a trend that we have seen in previous seasons.
Erling Haaland was the most popular captain throughout 2022/23, the Manchester City forward having been the top choice on five separate matchdays. The Norwegian was closely followed by Paris striker Kylian Mbappé, who led the way on four occasions, while Lautaro Martínez (twice) and Robert Lewandowski (once) were the other players who came out on top.
Curiously, despite scoring more Fantasy points than any other player last season, Real Madrid's Vinícius Júnior was never the most captained player on any given matchday.
MINIMISE POINTS HITS
It was very rare for the top 5,000 managers to go beyond their free transfer allowance and take points hits. In fact, an average of just 11.7% of them incurred point deductions on any given matchday. This shows that careful planning and squad management can reduce the need to make major changes further down the road.
Of course, sometimes widespread changes are unavoidable. 33.2% of the elite managers exceeded their free transfer allowance on Matchday 6, when heavy rotation usually comes into play. At this stage, most high-ranked Fantasy managers had already used both of their chips.
NOTABLE TOP 5,000 STATS
• 84.9% of the top 5,000 managers made some form of change to their team on all 13 matchdays.
• A total of 4,970 of the top 5,000 managers made manual substitutions on Matchday 9 – more than any other matchday.
• Over 50% of the top 5,000 captained Erling Haaland for his 25-point haul against Leipzig on Matchday 8 – the highest matchday Fantasy score ever achieved.
• Haaland was the most transferred in player overall, with 4,574 (91.5%) Fantasy managers bringing the Manchester City forward into their squads on Matchday 7.
• Ahead of the Champions League final on Matchday 13, more Man City players featured in Fantasy squads compared to runners-up Inter.