With the new season of the UEFA Champions League approaching, the top clubs of Europe are getting ready to battle each other on the topmost stage. Fans no less exhilarated, with UCL Fantasy, their exhilaration now is on the ascent. When putting together your squad it’s good to include a few cheaper options to fill the squad and free up cash to invest in your starting eleven. It’s ideal to spend as little as possible on these players but you still want to ensure you’ve got someone to fall back upon for some emergency points. Here are some of the best UCL Fantasy 2021/22 budget-friendly bargain options for your fantasy squads.
Similar to FPL, the squads in UCL fantasy too, require parity in terms of the price of the players. Consequently, although the highly-priced players maybe returning good points for your teams, you cannot have 15 highly-priced players in the squad. This is where the need for budget or low-priced players arises. Also, not all budget players are guaranteed to start a game. Besides, not all budget players may give considerable points in return. Here are some of the best budget options in UCL Fantasy 2021/22, according to positions.
Best budget-friendly and bargain options for your UCL Fantasy 2021/22 teams
Goalkeepers
To begin with, many managers prefer to have the safe hands of a premium-priced goalie in their team. €6m and €6.5m options are no doubt, great keepers, however, make sure their defense is good too, otherwise, with the clean sheet points gone, it would be a waste of money. It is also important that the managers are aware of the group fixtures of those keepers. This would make sure that given the price, the goalkeeper has returned a fair amount of points.
Antonio Adán (SCP) – 4.5m
Drawn into the group stage against Dortmund, Besiktas, and Ajax, the 34-year-old shot-stopper is Sporting‘s first-choice goalkeeper and comes only at a price of €4.5m. Apparently, except for Erling Haaland‘s Dortmund, the other 2 opponents are tricky and this is what cheap-priced players make their selections worth.
In last season’s champion campaign, Adan kept 19 clean sheets in 32 games, with an average of 1.8 saves per game. This season too, he is showing promises and his team couldn’t have gotten any better group.
Juan Musso (ATA) – 4.5m
Our second goalkeeper option may be the Argentinian shot-stopper. The Atalanta goalkeeper whose price is just €4.5m, is the 1st choice for his team. Grouped alongside Manchester United, Villareal, and Young Boys, he had a 2.8 saves per game last season with Udinese.
He also has a 66% save percentage. Overall hence, Musso would be a good choice for your bench, and even as your first-choice goalie, if you please. Besides the aforesaid options, managers may also keep Ajax goalie M. Stekelenburg and P. Kohn of RB Salzburg on their watchlist.
Defenders
While choosing defenders, make sure they are guaranteed starters, not just defensive fullbacks. Also, since there are points for ball possessions won, many defenders have the scope of returning a good amount of points, even if they don’t score or assist. There are also several players registered as defenders in the game but are either wingbacks or midfielders in reality. These players also should be sought after, as it turns out to be effective at times. The price range for defenders is between €4m to €6.5m. Hence, defenders for either €4m or €4.5m may be considered to be of a budget price.
Noussair Mazraoui (AJX) – 4.5m
The young Moroccan fullback of Ajax would be the very first name on this list. The 23-year-old gained 27 points in last season’s UCL fantasy. He is a regular starter for his team at right-back. Although he didn’t feature much in the last season, he has started all three Eredivisie matches for his team and has 2 assists and 1 goal already. Group C contains Sporting CP, Besiktas, and Borussia Dortmund besides Ajax, and since the fixtures look quite favorable, why not add this cheap beast to your team, for only €4.5m?
Kevin Mbabu (WOL) – 4.5m
The young Swiss international of VFL Wolfsburg had a decent EURO campaign with his national team. There are several reasons to add him to your fantasy squads, he comes for a cheap price (€4.5m) and is a guaranteed starter. Besides, he made 14 key passes in the 22 Bundesliga games he played last season.
This season too, he has played really well in the three games he featured in, with 2.7 interceptions per game, 2.3 tackles per game, and 1.7 key passes per game. Yes, he might not be the perfect starter for your team, but for the bench, he is a good option. Given the group, Wolfsburg are in, along with Sevilla, Salzburg, and Lille.
Marcos Acuña (SEV) – 4.5m
The Argentine full-back from Sevilla is another cheap defender option managers should consider. Acuna plays as a left-midfielder for Sevilla and might turn out to be a good option for a €4.5m. As a matter of fact, he already has an assist in three La Liga games. He also hails from a team that has a decent defense too, hence, you can count on clean sheet points from him, given their group stage opponents Wolfsburg, Salzburg, and Lille.
He averaged 1.1 key passes per game last season in La Liga. If you have one or two premium-priced defenders, you may opt for Acuna. also, since we are talking about Sevilla defense, center-back Diego Carlos for €4.5m is also a good option, due to the group fixtures they have.
Midfielders
It was indeed hard to find good midfield options, that too within the budget range in the game. However, since UCL fantasy gives points for ball wins or possessions won back, certain players, especially holding midfielders and DMFs are considerable options since they are also cheap. So, besides premium-priced midfielders like Salah, De Bruyne, Bruno, it is important that managers also own certain budget players who are beasts of the game. The price range of midfielders lies between €4.5m to €11m.
However, midfielders coming within €4.5m are not regular starters for their teams. Regular or almost regular starter players come for no less than €5-€5.5m. Hence, for the midfield, we have considered players within €5m to €6.5m range. Also, midfielders with a decent defense and favorable fixtures should be prioritized, for that 1 extra clean sheet point.
Adama Traoré (SHE) – 5.5m
Although the name might sound familiar to many FPL managers, our UCL fantasy’s Adama Traore plays for Sheriff Tiraspol and comes for a price of just €5.5m. The Malian left-winger started all the UCL qualifying stage games this season and was his team’s main talisman.
With 4 goals and 2 assists even before the group stage began, he would now get 6 more games to build upon those charts. Although apparently his group seems a bit difficult with Inter Milan, Real Madrid, and Shakhtar, never count such assets off.
N’Golo Kanté (CHE) – 5.5m
With the 2nd highest UCL fantasy ownership(53%), the French talisman of Chelsea might turn out to be the perfect choice for a fantasy manager’s midfield. Obvious reasons, like his €5.5m price, his guarantee to start UCL matches, his passing, playmaking, and also, goalscoring abilities, make him the top priority for what we may call a cheap beast. Last season he accumulated 43 points in total, of which, the maximum was for ball recoveries (16 points) 1 assist, and 5 clean sheet points from 5 games also helped.
Overall, if you consider his price, abilities and Chelsea’s strong defense, and lastly, their group stage opponents, Kante is a decent choice for €5.5m. Chelsea faces Juventus, Zenit St Petersburg, and Malmo in the group stage. Besides Kante, managers may also consider Jorginho for €6m, however, with Lukaku in the team, Jorginho might not take the penalties, o we do not actually recommend him.
Maximilian Arnold (WOL) – 6.5m
The German midfielder from Wolfsburg is their best player so far this season. He was also their 3rd highest goal assister with 6 assists. He is a guaranteed starter for only €6.5m and had almost 2 shots per game and 1.6 key passes per game on average last season in the Bundesliga.
As said earlier, given the group stage opponents of Wolfsburg, (Lille, Sevilla and Salzburg), managers should keep an eye on Arnold’s form for the first 1-2 games and the Bundesliga games in between. Besides the names mentioned above, cheap midfield alternatives like D. Klaasen, C. De Catelaere, F. Gravenberch, and Everton are worth to be kept an eye on.
Forwards
In a game where Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Mbappe, Haaland, Lewandowski, Lukaku are all available as forwards, Cheap Forwards would always remain unpopular. However, since we have to conclude with forward, and there are also managers who prefer to spend more in midfield than in the forwarding department, we would suggest a few forwards. Since the prices of forwards range from €5m to €11.5m, forwards within €7m may be considered cheap alternatives.
Olivier Giroud (ACM) – 7.0m
The French striker has actually turned out to be a good signing for AC Milan. He so far has scored 2 goals in 2 Serie A games and is likely to be a starter in the UCL group stage too. He also featured in the preseason friendlies for Milan and was in a good form then.
Although Milan is in the so-called Group of Death alongside Liverpool, Atletico Madrid, and Porto, there’s no harm in keeping such a striker in your team, especially if he comes at such a cheap cost of only €7m.
Paulinho (SCP) – 6.0m
Probably the 2nd player from Sporting CP whom you might get at a cheap price besides their goalkeeper Adan. Paulinho was Sporting’s 3rd highest goal contributor for his team in last season’s champion’s run.
With 6 goals and 6 assists last season in the Portuguese league, he has also featured in all the first 4 league games. He comes at a price of just €6m and considering his high probability to start, and favorable group fixtures against Ajax, Besiktas, and Dortmund, he might turn out to be a steal for that price.
Karim Adeyemi (SBG) – 7.0m
Having already scored 3 goals this season for the Austrian club this season, Adeyemi is already a player to watch out for. With his teammate Berisha signing for a deal with Fenerbahçe in the final days of the transfer window, Adeyemi now stands as Salzburg’s talisman. He will be on his team’s penalty duties and had already registered 5 attempts during the playoffs, 2 of which resulting in a goal.
With Salzburg’s opponents being Sevilla, Lille, and Wolfsburg, fans can expect the young German to continue his guns blazing. Managers should also keep an eye on potential cheap beasts in the forward’s department like H. Seferovic, and others, whom we have also suggested in our previous articles on UCL Fantasy.
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Did you find our analysis and overview on the new UCL Fantasy 2021/22 Best Budget options for this UEFA Champions League season useful? Drop your comments in the comment section below!
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