RADIO
The transition from past Champions League group-stage matches to a league phase might be fairly dramatic for fantasy managers. As a result, to remain competitive in your mini-league, you must devise a new plan. But what chip strategy approach should we adopt this season?
Hello, everyone. As RotoBaller embarks on its second season covering the UEFA Champions League, this article serves as your preview guide to the thrilling journey of the new Champions League 2024-2025 season with its final set for Munich Football Arena, Germany.
The Matchday 1 deadline of the 2024-2025 UEFA Champions League season is Tuesday, September 17 at 12:45 p.m. EDT, when Young Boys entertains Aston Villa and Juventus hosts PSV Eindhoven. Also, check out the rest of our excellent soccer coverage as the squad gets you all set for every English Premier League slate with our EPL DFS lineup picks and betting picks.
How many will make your squad? 👀
Pick your 15-player fantasy team 👇#UCLfantasy @playstationEU
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) September 3, 2024
UCL Fantasy Chips: What Purpose Do They Serve?
The new league phase, like prior seasons, did not affect the regular chips distributed to fantasy managers. These are the Wildcard and Limitless chips. In case you're playing Champions League fantasy and aren't sure what the chips are, let's take a brief look at the rules to determine what purpose they serve.
- Wildcard - The Wildcard allows managers to change their squads for future gameweeks. When activated, a manager is free to make unlimited transfers until the matchday deadline and that team will remain at least till the knockout stage.
- Limitless - Similar to the Free Hit Chip in the FPL game, the Limitless chip is more of a one-matchday chip that allows for unlimited transfers in your fantasy team with no budget limits, after which your previous team will return after the gameweek is over.
Please keep in mind that if you use any of the chips listed above, they will be gone for the remainder of the season.
Favorites and Underdogs - Highlighting Which Teams To Target
In our most recent Champions League post about Fixture Difficulty, we pointed out the top teams to target during the league. Celtic FC, Bayern Munich, and Barcelona were classified as having favorable fixtures, whereas Paris Saint-Germain, Sparta Praha, and Liverpool had a more challenging schedule.
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒-𝟐𝟓: Fixture Difficulty 🗓
Following the Champions League draw, we’ve used the Opta Power Rankings to work out the difficulty of each team’s fixtures in the 2024-25 group stage.
Read more here: https://t.co/exXd5ftIau
✍️ @alitweedale pic.twitter.com/oGAswEiStF
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) August 30, 2024
With this in mind, I'd like to highlight the Champions League favorites and underdogs according to the most recent UEFA coefficient rankings. This will provide managers with a knowledge of which teams they should strategize around.
UEFA dropped updated club coefficient rankings ahead of the new season 📊
Any Surprises? 👀 pic.twitter.com/sHyZDsnlHt
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) July 12, 2024
According to the current rankings, Manchester City, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich are among the top favorites to win the competition this season. However, teams like Barcelona, Arsenal, and Atalanta -- all ranked in the top 20 -- also have a strong chance of lifting the title.
On the other hand, the underdogs for this campaign will largely come from Pots 3 and 4 of the Champions League draw, including debutants like Brest, ŠK Slovan Bratislava, and Girona FC. With the favorites and underdogs identified, let’s dive into strategic considerations for navigating this league phase.
UCL Fantasy: Top Three Chip Strategy To Adopt For The League Phase
Before we go into strategy, there is one more thing I'd like to point out. With the league phase underway, teams finishing ninth to 24th in the league will qualify for a playoff knockout stage, with the victors joining the first eight clubs that have already qualified.
In addition, the transfer rules have been adjusted to allow managers unlimited moves during the knockout playoff round.
Strategy 1 - All-Out Attack (Wildcard MD 3, Limitless MD 8)
A manager in this category decides to attack the fixtures head-on as quickly as possible, giving them a solid head start. This requires playing your Wildcard Chip in Matchday 3 and later triggering the Limitless Chip by the end of the league phase in Matchday 8.
Matchday 3 presents a luxury of good games like Paris Saint-Germain vs. PSV, Atletico Madrid vs. Lille, and Arsenal vs. Shakhtar Donetsk, which are solid games to target. Matchday 8 has a lot of good matchups as well with all 36 teams playing at the same time. Fantasy managers will have access to early team lineups and avoid team rotation in this round when playing the Limitless chip.
Working with the knowledge that you will gain more transfers in the knockout phase overall compared to the league phase, it would seem more clever to play your chips early and still plan tactically for future gameweeks ahead.
Strategy 2 - Divide and Conquer (Wildcard MD 5, Limitless MD 8)
Managers in this category are not different from the All-Out Attack managers above; however, take a more calculated approach by dividing the chips across two halves of the league phase.
Carefully analyzing the fixtures in total, fantasy managers in this category would go on to select assets from teams with solid fixtures between Matchday 1 to 4 and switch those picks playing the Wildcard chip ahead of Matchday 5 to prepare for the next round of favorable fixtures.
This approach also employs the idea of playing the Limitless chip on the final day of the league phase in Matchday 8 to avoid team rotation from Champions League favorites like Manchester City or Real Madrid, who might have sealed qualification and strive to gain optimal points in other teams seeking for a strong finish.
Strategy 3 - Eagle Eye (Limitless MD 8, Wildcard Quarterfinals)
An "eagle-eye view" is commonly referred to as having a keen vision or a wide perspective of how things are portrayed. This strategy requires carefully weighing the risks of leveraging on a team while still being decisive when needed.
With lots of matches yet to be played across the local leagues and an increase of games from six to eight matches in the Champions League, fantasy managers in this category anticipate there could be lots of rotation during the league phase and potential rotation could affect selection and will rather delay gratification in triggering their chips early.
The concept here is to stall your chips as much as possible during the league phase, only triggering the Limitless Chip in Matchday 8, and saving up your Wildcard chip for the knockout stages. Especially when there is no more room for unlimited transfers like in the quarterfinals, giving such managers a tactical advantage in finishing the season strongly compared to those who play their chips early.
To recap, each fantasy manager has a unique approach to managing his squad; some prefer to play their chips early on, while others may postpone it for a while. Whatever strategy you have in mind that is not specified above may still produce the desired result and keep you at the top of your mini-league. Best of luck!
Join The RotoBaller League
Once again, join our RotoBaller.com league. Hit any of our writers up over the next two weeks, we will give you the code (also in the graphic below), and you'll be good to go. Good luck for UEFA Champions League Fantasy, RotoBallers!
Stick around for more UCL Fantasy content coming soon. Is there a question you would like to have answered every week? Hit us up on X @RotoBaller. We would love to hear your feedback and ideas!
