Best UCL Fantasy MD1 Drafts for 2022/23 Season With Pros/Cons

2022/23 UCL Fantasy Season is around the corner and in this blog we’ll be looking at the best drafts to begin the UCL Fantasy season. The aim is to select the best set of players for MD1 based on the fixtures and pre UCL form, all the drafts also have pros/cons along with the planned chip strategy for the season.

If you’re new to UCL Fantasy check our UCL Fantasy Beginners Guide for the 2022/23 Season.

Link to all our UCL Fantasy Blogs in one place ~ All our team reveals, differentials, tips and other UCL Fantasy blogs in one place and for free

UCL Fantasy MD1 Fixtures

Things to keep in mind while creating your UCL Fantasy Drafts:

• Picking a team of players who are all expected to play
• Finding the right balance between players playing in the first day and the second day.
• Having two good captaincy options from each day of the matchday.
• Two goalkeepers playing in different days of the matchday.
• Deadline is at KO of the first match of the matchday so you can look at the teamsheets of Chelsea, Dinamo Zagreb, Dortmund and Copenhagen for MD1.

Further Read: UCL Fantasy Beginners Guide for the 2022/23 Season.

Fixtures to target in UCL Fantasy MD1:

Day one:

• Dinamo Zagreb vs Chelsea
• Dortmund vs Copenhagen
• Celtics vs Real Madrid
• Sevilla vs Man City

Day two:

• Barcelona vs Plzen
• Spurs vs Marseille
• Ajax vs Rangers

UCL Fantasy Drafts

UCL Fantasy Draft one:

Benzema picks himself with 15 goals in UCL and 102 points(highest) last season. He is standout captain choice for Day 1 on Matchday 1 against Celtic.

Nkunku(9.0) is surprisingly owned by just 14% managers who I really like for UCL MD1 fixture vs Shakhtar. Nkunku has scored 4/6 goals Leipzig this season. Nkunku is ranked third for Expected goals(2.8) in Bundesliga this season only behind Mane and Muller.

Mahrez is a risky pick considering the rotation risk, but if he is rested for the weekend game vs Villa, he is a great attacking pick. Mahrez scored 7 goals, 2 assists and 71 UCL points last season which was the third highest among midfielders. Mane would be my replacement if Mahrez is not rested for the weekend PL game vs Villa. Mahrez can also become Haaland(by changing structure) if Haaland is rested vs Villa.

Benfica have won 4/4 games in the league this season and 4.5 mid Florentino Luis has started all the 4 games. He is a defensive midfielder so dont expect goal, assists from him. He will be good for points for Ball recoveries and is a good budget enabler.

Musiala has had a great start this season at Bayern with 3 goals, 1 assists from 2 starts this season. He is also third for xG/90(0.75) in Bundesliga this season despite having just 2 starts compared to others who had 4 starts. At just 7% TSB, he should be a great differential option for MD1

Pedro Goncalves at 7.5 is a great differential pick as he has started all 4 games, scored 3/6 goals for Sporting CP this season. He is up against a struggling Eintracht Frankfurt side in Matchday 1 who have conceded 11 goals from 4 games in league this season- 2nd worst in Bundesliga.

4.0 Million Defender Bassey has slowly settled into the Ajax defense having started both of the last 2 league games against Sparta Rotterdam and Ulretch and getting 2 clean sheets. He was signed by Ajax for a club record of around 20 million from Rangers during the summer.

Potential chip strategy: Limitless could be played in MD2/5 with PSG playing Juventus in MD1 but play Maccabi Haifa F.C in MD2. Similarly Barcelona play Bayern in MD2 so you potentially remove their assets for MD2 using limitless.

Pros & cons of the above draft:

Pros

• Good spread of players from both days of the matchday
• Great captaincy choices in both matchdays
• Proven defenders in Guerriro, Trent, and Reinildo
• Some excellent differentials in Musiala, Mahrez and Pedro Goncalves

Cons

• No PSG assets
• No Liverpool attacker
• GK spot could be strengthened

ALLABOUTFPL have a free-to-join UCL Fantasy league! You can join now using this link.

UCL Fantasy Draft Two

Lewandoski was the second highest scoring forward in UCL Fantasy last season scoring 91 points from 13 goals, three assists and two penalties earned. This season he has moved to Barcelona and has already scored 4 goals in three games with an npxG+xA/90 of 1.26. Lewandoski is playing FC Viktoria Plzeň in the second day of Matchday 1 and is a strong captaincy options if your captain choice from first day fail to return big.

Timo Werner was in the top 10 points scorers amongst forwards last season and this season has moved back permanently to RB Leipzig. He has already scored once in the bundesliga and scored a hattrick in the Pokal cup indicating that he’s in fine form.

Jorginho (€5.5m) is an excellent budget option and scored 50 points last season(11th highest amongst mids). He made 36 ball recoveries last season which earned him 9 points(3 ball recoveries fetch a point in UCL Fantasy), Jorginho is also on penalties and we could see the Chelsea lineup before the matchday one deadline which is an added bonus.

Sterling has moved to Chelsea this season and has already scored three goals for Chelsea. Unlike his time at Man City at Chelsea he’s a guaranteed starter which means there’s no risk of rotation. His expected numbers are also really impressive with 0.81 npxG+xA/90 in the PL.

I don’t have to talk you all into picking Vinicius Junior, he was Real Madrid’s star last season scoring 4 goals and earning 6 assists. He has played three games in La Liga and scored two goals and registered an assist with a healthy npxG+xA/90 of 0.92.

Steven Bergwijn (€7.0m) is the attacking sub on the bench as he plays in day 2 of matchday one. He has settled in nicely at Ajax scoring 5 goals in as many games for Ajax this season and will look to continue the goal scoring form into the UCL game against Rangers in MD1.

Reinildo (€4.5m) had a great UCL Fantasy last season and surprisingly is still priced at 4.5 Million. He was the joint second highest scoring defender with 60 points, only Cancelo had more points in UCL Fantasy last season amongst defenders. Bulk of his points came from ball recoveries with 23 points of 73 ball recoveries.

Éder Militão (€5.5m) is the other defender who was joint second with Reinildo and he was also the player with most ball recoveries last season with a whopping 76 ball recoveries accounting for 23 points.

Cancelo is the other premium defender in this draft and he justifies his price tag after being the highest scoring defender in UCL Fantasy last season.

Nuno Tavares (€4.0m) is an exciting talent on loan at Marseille who has already scored three goals in just four games. His positioning as Wing back is clearly helping his attacking potential which can be seen from his 0.38 npxG+xA/90. At just 4.0 Million he’s a bargain buy.

Hradecky(€4.5m) and Trubin(€4.5m) are the ideal budget goalkeepers with Trubin playing in the first day of matchday one and Hradecky playing in the second day of UCL Matchday one.

Pros & cons of the above draft:

Pros

• Good spread of players from both days of the matchday
• Great captaincy choices in both matchdays
• Proven defenders in Cancelo, Reinildo and Eder Militao
• Two chelsea players who can be confirmed in the starting 11 before deadline offering flexibility
• Three premium forwards in Lewandoski, Werner and Benzema

Cons

• No PSG and Liverpool assets, two star-studded teams
• No Man City attacker
• GK spot could be strengthened

Potential chip strategy: Limitless could be played in MD2/5. Wildcard could be played in MD3 as there are good fixture swings for the big teams in matchday 3 and 4 which can be targetted using a MD3 wildcard.

Other players to consider in your MD1 UCL Fantasy Draft

• Harry Kane €10.5m
• PSG Attackers (Messi €10.5m, Mbappe €11m, Neymar €10.0m)
• Nicolás Otamendi €4.5m
• Achraf Hakimi €6.0m
• Theo Hernandez €6.0m
• Reus €7.5m
• Kvitcha Kvaratskhelia €5.5m
• Trent Alexander Arnold €6.5m
• Sadio Mané €10.5m
• Erling Haaland €11m
• Grbic and Perin €4m each
• J Mario €6.0m
• Jutgla €5.5m
• Vlachodimos €5.0m
• Rafael Leao €8.5m

Projected points for popular UCL Fantasy Assets for MD1:

Data from the UEFA blog on projected points position wise

Player	Price	Club	Opponents	Home/Away	Gameday	Projected points
Thibaut Courtois	€6.0m	Real Madrid	Celtic	Away	Tuesday	6.3
Marc-André ter Stegen	€5.5m	Barcelona	Plzeň	Home	Wednesday	6.0
Odysseas Vlachodimos	€5.0m	Benfica	Maccabi Haifa	Home	Tuesday	5.6
Edouard Mendy	€6.0m	Chelsea	Dinamo Zagreb	Away	Tuesday	5.5
Ederson	€6.0m	Manchester City	Sevilla	Away	Tuesday	5.3

Player	Price	Club	Opponents	Home/Away	Gameday	Projected points
João Cancelo	€6.5m	Man City	Sevilla	Away	Tuesday	7.0
Éder Militão	€5.5m	Real Madrid	Celtic	Away	Tuesday	6.6
Ronald Araújo	€5.0m	Barcelona	Plzeň	Home	Wednesday	6.3
Trent Alexander-Arnold	€6.5m	Liverpool	Napoli	Away	Wednesday	6.3
Nicolás Otamendi	€4.5m	Benfica	Maccabi Haifa	Home	Tuesday	6.2
Achraf Hakimi	€6.0m	Paris	Juventus	Home	Tuesday	6.2
Reinildo	€4.5m	Atlético	Porto	Home	Wednesday	6.1
Virgil van Dijk	€5.5m	Liverpool	Napoli	Away	Wednesday	6.1
Thiago Silva	€5.5m	Chelsea	Dinamo Zagreb	Away	Tuesday	6.0
Nuno Tavares	€4.0m	Marseille	Tottenham	Away	Wednesday	6.0

Player	Price	Club	Opponents	Home/Away	Gameday	Projected points
Vinícius Júnior	€10.0m	Real Madrid	Celtic	Away	Tuesday	8.2
Mohamed Salah	€11.0m	Liverpool	Napoli	Away	Wednesday	7.9
Kevin De Bruyne	€10.5m	Man City	Sevilla	Away	Tuesday	7.6
Sadio Mané	€10.5m	Bayern	Inter	Away	Wednesday	7.2
Steven Bergwijn	€7.0m	Ajax	Rangers	Home	Wednesday	7.0
Christopher Nkunku	€9.0m	Leipzig	Shakhtar Donetsk	Home	Tuesday	6.9
Dejan Kulusevski	€7.5m	Tottenham	Marseille	Home	Wednesday	6.8
Leroy Sané	€9.0m	Bayern	Inter	Away	Wednesday	6.5
Pedro Gonçalves	€7.5m	Sporting CP	Frankfurt	Away	Wednesday	6.4
Luka Modrić	€7.0m	Real Madrid	Celtic	Away	Tuesday	6.2

Robert Lewandowski	€11.0m	Barcelona	Plzeň	Home	Wednesday	8.9
Karim Benzema	€11.0m	Real Madrid	Celtic	Away	Tuesday	8.9
Erling Haaland	€11.0m	Man City	Sevilla	Away	Tuesday	8.5
Neymar	€10.0m	Paris	Juventus	Home	Tuesday	8.4
Kylian Mbappé	€11.0m	Paris	Juventus	Home	Tuesday	8.1
Harry Kane	€10.5m	Tottenham	Marseille	Home	Wednesday	7.8
Darwin Núñez	€8.5m	Liverpool	Napoli	Away	Wednesday	7.4
Timo Werner	€8.0m	Leipzig	Shakhtar Donetsk	Home	Tuesday	7.1
Lionel Messi	€10.5m	Paris	Juventus	Home	Tuesday	7.1
Dušan Vlahović	€9.0m	Juventus	Paris	Away	Tuesday	7.0

Further Read: What is the Limitless Chip in UCL Fantasy | Limitless Chip Guide

ALLABOUTFPL have a free-to-join UCL Fantasy league! You can join now using this link.

Further Reads from ALLABOUTFPL ahead of UCL Fantasy MD1

Best UCL Fantasy Differentials to Consider for MD1 | 22/23 Season
UCL Fantasy: Captaincy Explained & Best Options for MD1
UCL Fantasy: Meta Discussion, Chip Strategy, & Players to Target
2022/23 UCL Fantasy Best Budget Enablers | Position Wise
What is the Limitless Chip in UCL Fantasy | Limitless Chip Guide
Beginner’s Guide to 22/23 UCL Fantasy Season | UCL Fantasy Tips
Best UCL Fantasy MD1 Drafts for 2022/23 Season With Pros/Cons

Link to all our UCL Fantasy Blogs in one place ~ All our team reveals, differentials, tips and other UCL Fantasy blogs in one place and for free

What’s next from ALLABOUTFPL ahead of Matchday 3 of the 2022/23 UCL Fantasy Season?

We’ll be covering UCL Fantasy team structures, must-own players, player comparisons, differential picks, fixture analysis, captaincy analysis, multiple team reveal drafts with pros and cons, chip strategy, rules guide, beginners guide, UCL fantasy tips, and more. Keep checking allaboutfpl.com for all our blogs and subscribe to our free newsletter through the link below. We’ll also be posting regularly about the same on our social media accounts so follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook keep our notification ON.

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UCL Fantasy Matchday 1 Deadline Countdown

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