UCL Fantasy 22/23 expert interview

We provide a UCL Fantasy 22/23 expert interview from podcast host and content creator @uclfantasypod (Daniel). He has set aside some of his time to give some honest answers on how successful his latest campaign was.

Looking at Daniel’s UCL Fantasy 22/23 expert interview could be very insightful. Finding out what went wrong, what went right and lessons he has learned can be extremely useful and help towards our future decisions.

Favourite team to invest in this season?

My favourite team to invest in this year is everyone’s second team, Borussia Dortmund. With mixed form over the last couple of years, it was nice to get off to a solid start with a double defensive clean sheet (Meyer being a bargain 4m goalkeeper and Guerreiro bagging himself and assist to boot) and Reus scoring as well as getting that extra clean sheet point.

Variance was minimised in that game with Brandt getting the player of the match and Bellingham also netting. Any Bellingham owners fell on their feet with four goals in the first four games. Their best showing will come later though.

Worst team to invest in?

I never found a team that I personally invested in to be outright bad so I looked further afield to the general trolls out there. Step forward Atletico Madrid. Outside of MD1 they were mostly humiliated in the group stages. We always knew picking their scorers would be difficult but their defenders have often been so reliable. Not this year. Just one clean sheet coming in MD4 was a terrible return on investment.

Favourite return of the season?

Back to Dortmund and the pinnacle moment of my favourite team rewarding my loyalty. People laughed when I said I was going double BVB defence against Chelsea. Chelsea however were fairly dreadful at the time and Dortmund had some great league form behind them.

I remember particularly Schlotterbeck and Guerreiro were banging in goals and assists in the Bundesliga so I went for the double up punt. They didn’t get any attacking returns but a clean sheet each and three ball recovery points later, they netted 15 points between them which got me my third 100 club of the season.

Flop of the season?

Pedro Goncalves was a hero of the 21/22 season. Consecutive 18 point hauls is the sort of stuff that the streets just don’t forget. This year he managed one assist and a red card to even that out. Sporting were awful in general but no one could see this individual downfall. I blame Fulham for taking Palinha.

Biggest hauls of the season?

Lewandowski 36 (18×2) v Plzn (MD1)
Costa 16 v Leverkusen (MD3)
Mbappe 16 v Haifa (MD5)

Favourite players to own?

Diogo Costa’s three penalty saves are written in folk-law. I swear we’ll never see anything quite like this again. To top it off, he even bagged an assist in one of those games. 43 points in three games is Haaland level stuff. Grimaldo was also a bit of a cult hero this season. I missed his opening MD scorcher but thankfully hit all of his subsequent points after that. He was so consistent throughout at such a reasonable price.

Kylian Mbappe is a boring choice but such an important one. He rarely let me down and was such a consistently high scorer that he became a great captaincy shout most weeks. We all need great differentials, but the premium players that we pick are just as, if not more, important. He hit more often than he missed.

Favourite moment in the Champions League?

I have both a favourite overall Champions League moment and a fantasy moment. The first is Shakhtar steamrolling Leipzig in their opening game. With the conflict in Ukraine, it was a moment that potentially brought the people a brief moment of respite from the horrors they were facing. From a fantasy perspective, my favourite moment couldn’t be further away from the sombre, sobering thoughts of Russia’s invasion.

I mentioned earlier a game in which Diego Costa saved a penalty and got an assist during a 16-point haul. The flip side to that was his Portuguese compatriot Adan, getting sent off for Sporting in a 4-1 demolition. His -3 caused a whopping 19 point swing! And half of my twitter group chat owned him. The messages flying around that night were nothing short of glorious.

Best differential of the season?

3% owned Kinglsey Coman scored 11 points away to PSG. Most had opted for Sane but knockout history and the weaknesses that PSG showed in recent French games led me to believe Coman would score against his old team once again. I even stuck a captaincy on him for 22 points.

Season overall

Two major mistakes defined my season. Firstly, Leipzig had only conceded two goals in the entire year before heading to the Etihad Stadium. One of those goals was against Manchester City in the first leg, a game where Haaland managed one attempt at goal and it was off target. Man City were out of sorts and the Bundesliga team were flying. Cue a 7-1 thrashing where Erling Braut Haaland would score a hat-trick of the luckiest goals you’ve ever seen in your life followed by a further brace of supreme quality. “Didn’t captain him, Daniel?” Didn’t even own him. Fifty. Point. Swing.

The second wasn’t overly in my control. I play football at 6:30pm on a Wednesday and any changes to my team during the knockouts will be made at 7:45pm when I’m in the car. Except my phone died for the semi-final. That meant I couldn’t captain Di Marco’s nine pointer nor substitute in Onana or Darmian who both got 7 points each. 23 points up in smoke.