The Tipster: Mike Hammond's team

The UEFA Europa League is building up to an interesting climax, and with the first legs of the round of 16 taking place this Thursday, the competition is also hotting up in the Fantasy League standings.

I enjoyed a reasonably satisfactory matchday eight, adding 50 points to my total, which kept me bubbling under in 132nd place (out of 40,013). Although I was let down by a few under-performing players, my new signing Arkadiusz Milik came good with two goals for AFC Ajax at Legia Warszawa, and there were also welcome nine-point contributions from Torino FC wing-back Matteo Darmian and VfL Wolfsburg goalkeeper Diego Benaglio.

Suffice to say, I won't be removing any of that trio for this week's games. In fact, with six free transfers permitted in advance of the round of 16 and the same number of players from my squad eliminated in the round of 32, the only changes I shall make will be replacements for those – which means I need to bring in one (substitute) goalkeeper, one defender, two midfielders and two forwards.

Ajax's Jasper Cillessen seems a good bet to shadow Benaglio between the posts, while I like the look of Club Brugge KV's Óscar Duarte to go into the centre of my back three, despite stiff competition from Raúl Albiol of SSC Napoli, whose defence has kept a record five successive clean sheets in the competition.

I have already inked in ACF Fiorentina's new goal-grabbing Egyptian, Mohamed Salah, for a place in my midfield, with Napoli's Marek Hamšík, a high points scorer for me in the group stage, perhaps also making a return.

Up front, to play alongside Milik, I am tempted by the in-form José Rondón of FC Zenit, who hit a hat-trick at the weekend to add to his UEFA Europa League double against PSV Eindhoven. My third striker's berth – assuming the €105m transfer kitty allows – is likely to be filled by one of Gonzalo Higuaín (Napoli), Luciano Vietto (Villarreal CF) or Nikola Kalinić (FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk).

With the transfer deadline set at 17.45CET on Thursday, there is plenty of time for you – and me – to reconsider all the options, but remember, you only get one free transfer before the second legs, so a strategic selection for the round as a whole would be advisable.

Enjoy matchday nine!