Diary of a Champions League Group Stage player

[Yorkshire Exile]

I came 18th in the freeroll for 10 euros.... I can barely contain myself

[Toffeeman]

Trumps my €1.15 although did manage to finish 35th and get a free ticket to the €20 weekly monster from 1 entry.

Strange as I was 36th when I last looked last night!

Transfers going to be tricky as plenty of options given the next 2 fixture sets

Good luck cbn

[Billy Stark]

77th here will a single entry, but I brought Promes in this week with the Danish doubler in mind, only to see him on the bench. I’m hoping the gaffer was just rewarding one of the fringe players for the 13-0 victory at the weekend, and Promes isn’t a regular bench warmer.

You have a good stable CBN and can choose a few different capos, so you are in great shape. Messi looks the obvious selection, but Lewandowski/KDB/Sterling etc all worthy options too.

*sorry aurora, possibly the wrong place for this, hijacking your thread somewhat. My starting team was actually quite similar to yours. I gambled with no Messi and Lewandowski. Think I have pushed my luck far enough now with no Messi.

[CBN]

77th single entry is outstanding.

Yeah Messi the no brainer given there has got to be a shout Sterling is given a breather. Rotation is a serious headache

[Biddles32]

Am i right in thinking this competition finishes after another 4 rounds? Didn't have time to look into it or enter any teams.... If so good luck for the next four rounds CBN and also good luck to you too Aurora

[aurora]

*sorry aurora, possibly the wrong place for this, hijacking your thread somewhat. My starting team was actually quite similar to yours. I gambled with no Messi and Lewandowski. Think I have pushed my luck far enough now with no Messi.

mi casa en su casa.

my aim for the next game week is to get back within 30 points of the lead so I'm looking for a 17 point improvement. 30 points then with 3 game weeks to go would not be insurmountable. Daka is a definite gonner, Lukaku possibly, though Real do not look the team they were. Alberto I think has to go, do not know if it's going to be a Hakemi situation where it was a false result, if not he wont be able to play next week so have to stay on top of that. One of the reasons why moving much further up the table is possible is because there will be some who miss the deadline, some who forget altogether, multi's who let some of their teams go or do not have the time to manage them all

Either way I'm going to go with my instinct with the 4 transfers I have taking into account the fixture after the double header to help plan ahead so that at least if I do belly flop I can at least not say to myself 'I should have done this and that'. I've been happy with my captains picks so far, a turnaround from the season game, this is even more essential in this short format.

again good luck to CBN and others here doing well, obviously much more realistic you are mixing it at the top going into game week 6 than me, least I hope for is that I get 11 players I want out on the pitch and not succumb to c19 or injury as happened. 2 or 3 times. I'll play this to the end regardless so as next year I have something to compare it to

[LoneGunner]

Great work CBN - hope you can keep near your position.

Captain choice and late goals killed me this week. I was up around 200th at one stage, but Lewandowski firing a blank and the injury time strikes for Salah, Haaland and Messi all had a big impact. Particularly the latter for me, as I'd built a lot of my teams around either starting with Lewandowski or transferring him in GW2, and he came in for Messi x4 this week.

Still, all to play for and big swings expected: e.g. my (Dortmund-centric) team that was sitting squarely bottom of the Fiso league last week is now mid-pack and only 7pts off my top team. Need to nail the captain picks and stop leaving points on the bench though.

[aurora]

Transfers

Haaland > Ronaldo
Lukaku > Martial
Daka > Traore

Subbed
Florenzi > Rits.

Captain - Ronaldo

Couldn't risk any Barca players, Dynamo could have the match called off if they pull out 1 more player from their squad, if it goes ahead it's of course big advantage to Messi teams but I consider the situation to be a real punt to have put any Barca player in. No Bayern players which is the real issue, but I was planning for both double header games and Bayern will probably rotate after the 1st game which they'll win, they have so many goal outlets as well I'd rather have players from teams where they are more the focus. Florenzi now has competition from Kehrer and doesn't play 90 mins in this comp, heard he could also be rested but made no sense to have him PSG play Leipzig and I have Angelino, have plans to upgrade him to another defender in 2 weeks. Lukaku looks set to miss the Real match so he had to go, Traore has gone from 0% ownership to 10% so I'm not as shrewd as I thought as many others were aware of him I at one point was considering 3 Ajax players til the virus outbreak in their camp, Promes was one of them but instead went for Ziyech, only 4% own him, could transfer him out after the first game for Promes however. Haaland is apparently half fit but will probably play, I think Brugges looks fairly good defensively so didn't fanct him for this double header anyway (famous last words), and I prefer Ronaldo whose ownership has jumped from 0% to 17%. Martial should start and play 90 mins as he's been banned from the league last 3 games and needs it for match fitness, against this team who are not doing the well in the Turkish league, and a potential United backlash after the weekend, just looked like a good option. He has 1% ownership now 6%. Rits I don't really want in the team tbh but cheap and cheerful and Brugge are better than people think, he scores goals as well. Will need a replacement, aim was to gain 17 points on the lead to go into the 4th week within 30 points, if not will try to aim for top 100/50 or something idk.

[aurora]

Traore on the bench, I'll get my coat.

[CBN]

You're in good company

[LoneGunner]

Traore has gone from 0% ownership to 10% so I'm not as shrewd as I thought as many others were aware of him

5 goals and 3 assists in a 0-13 win saw to that.

We have similar transfers this week Aurora. With 8 teams, I brought in 5x Martial and 4x Ronaldo and also went heavier on Sevilla coverage to add to what I had. Mostly able to upgrade cheaper players, the only 'risks' were taking out one Sterling and one Salah, but that was more than compensated by the players I have brought in. Split my Captains this week evenly: 3x Ronaldo, 3x Lewandowski, 2x Messi.

All those players and no Pleas...

[Toffeeman]

Strange as I'm sure tadic was supposed to be out, originally planned traore but he wasnt showing in many predicted line ups.

Went plea instead

[BLOCKHEAD]

Traore got on in the 90th min - it's times like these where I'm glad I don't follow the Dutch league

[aurora]

What was the point in the Ajax manager bringing Traore all the way to Denmark to bring him on in the 90th minute for another forward to play just 1 minute, you'd have thought the logical thing to do to protect a lead would be to bring him on for a defender, oh well, you win some, you lose some. Unless Ronaldo and Martial score 5 each, I'm finished in this comp, many sitting on Messi as captain at the top as well, I'm 87 pts behind, will at least allow me to concentrate more on the season game, good luck to those in the mix.

[aurora]

68.5 points behind, 3011 position, don't think daaceofdiamonds knows where he is, hasn't made any transfers.
Don't know what happened to Bono tonight.

[BLOCKHEAD]

He knows exactly where he is - late entry so he gets his transfers rolled over to next week giving him 4 in total.