Champions League Fantasy Football

Group A Bayern have locked up Group A, and after a hard fought battle with RB Leipzig at the weekend, are expected to rotate essentially the whole side again, as they did in MD5's tie with Atletico. With a handful of players sidelined (including Kimmich, Martinez, Tolisso, Davies, Hernandez, and possibly Boateng), there will likely be a need for a couple of starters to play here, which will mean Bayern remain a source of solid fantasy value. Despite playing at the weekend, Sane looks like a good bet here, having only notched four starts this season. Gnabry was benched at the weekend so could feature here, though as a regular starter this could be considered a good opportunity to give him some rest. With Hernandez and probably Boateng missing, both Alaba and Sule could end up playing here without too many rotation options available. Lomomotiv will presumably field as strong of a side as they can, in a quest for the Europa League spot, although they do have some personnel issues wit...

The games are coming thick and fast without the typical two-week cadence, which is probably a good thing for identifying who is in and out of the team (and who doesn't have COVID-19) but makes it really tough to find room to actually analyze what is happening. The below is a hybrid summary between who is playing and also who looked impressive.  I must also note that one of my potential strategies coming into the season was to wildcard after MD2 to take advantage of the back-to-back fixtures in MD3 and MD4, which allows you to really tailor your lineup to take advantage of 33% of all the group games. Without committing to that move just yet, it is a factor when highlighting the players below. Ajax With two games coming up against Midtjylland, this is a side worth looking closer at. They went with a much more attacking lineup against Atalanta, which will presumably be the template against the Danes too. That might therefore mean a spot for Lassina Traore (5.0m)...

Rather than grouping players purely by position, I decided that arranging by "tiers" might make more sense. The rationale is that when deciding whether we want Romelu Lukaku (11.0m) , the alternative probably isn't Patson Daka (7.5m) but is actually someone like Raheem Sterling (10.5m) . Yes, they play a different position, and Daka may literally  take Lukaku's place in your side, but with five midfield and three forward slots, the most precious resource is money and balancing out your elite options will likely take preference over the structure of your squad. The opporuntity cost of Luakaku is thus more likely to be Sterling than Daka. As we work through the premium options (who I am defining as 9.5m or higher), I am working on the assumption that we can probably afford three, or maybe  four of them, and thus we really want to have at least one playing on each "side" of the draw i.e. one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. These are labelled as " S1 ...