Rate My Team: UCL MD-11 Fantasy

Matchday 10 Recap

Although I had subbed in all my bench players for the second game-day of MD-10, I got distracted by something or other and then forgot to return to my computer to save the changes. Consequently, once the substitution deadline passed, shazam! My squad reverted to its original setup:

Fortunately, the lapse in concentration didn’t hurt me too badly. John Stones was the only player on my bench who scored more than two points, and even he came away with only four.

Still, the result was 49 points and red arrows.

MD-11 Plan

As foolish as I feel for making that rookie mistake last round, I must shake it off and move forward. Six of my players are out of the tournament (Hummels, Haaland, Jota, Coman, Kimmich, and Zaidu), so it’s time to put my five free transfers to work. In fact, I’m leaning toward absorbing a -4 penalty to execute an extra transfer that would allow me to move all six of them out for new blood in both my starting XI and my bench. At the moment, this is my tentative squad:

This team is as equally-divided as possible between teams who play Tuesday and teams who play on Wednesday, which means that I can easily sub out Tuesday’s duds, and that I shouldn’t need too many forced transfers to create the same flexibility next week.

My squad is also fairly equally divided between each of the four teams left in the tournament. That means that with my three free transfers for the second leg plus the five before the final, I should have no problem replacing players who crash out (although I still have my Wildcard, so I guess that’s not really so important).

I do feel a little nervous without Kevin De Bruyne, but he is so expensive that fitting him in would prevent me from buying a solid third forward. I think I’d rather have Neymar plus a balanced team over KDB and a weak third forward, so this is the lineup I’m likely to finalize after ensuring that my picks from Chelsea and Real Madrid are confirmed starters tomorrow (I’ll also fill all of my bench positions with players from clubs that play on Wednesday, of course).

Finally, I still have my Wildcard. I could play it and make all six of my proposed subs (plus more) for free. But I’m just not sure I want to burn that chip yet; I like the idea of having it available so that I can build the best possible team for the final. What do you think?

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Whom are you dropping and whom are you adding this week? Are your transfers forced by injury and/or elimination, or do you have the luxury of upgrading somewhere? Are the five free transfers enough for you, or are you considering one or more hits to fill holes? Please take our poll and then share your plans in the comments below.

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