The Most Balls Recovered in UCL Fantasy (Before R16)

Balls recovered. A great source of points in the Champions League fantasy football. There were too many questions about this new feature when it was introduced, because we had no data about it from previous seasons.

It was hard to predict, how it was going to influence players points. Now we know that some players are better than others at balls recovered and that they offer stable rout to getting fantasy points.

Most Balls Recovered in UCL Fantasy 2022/23 in Group Stage

*only remaining players

Player	Balls Recovered	Matches	Balls Recovered per match
Hasebe	30	4	7.5
Verratti	34	5	6.8
Florentino	39	6	6.5
Kimmich	32	5	6.4
Uribe	32	5	6.4
Sow	38	6	6.33
Bennacer	34	6	5.67
Bellingham	28	5	5.6
Emre Can	28	5	5.6
Hojbjerg	33	6	5.5
Onyedika	27	5	5.4
Schlager	32	6	5.33
Jakič	32	6	5.33
Rodri	26	5	5.2
Kroos	31	6	5.17
Tchouameni	25	5	5
Bentancur	29	6	4.83
Vitinha	29	6	4.83
Lobotka	28	6	4.67
Raum	28	6	4.67
Haidara	23	5	4.6
Gundogan	27	6	4.5
Enzo Fernandez	22	5	4.4
Joao Mario	24	6	4
Fabinho	24	6	4
Thiago	20	5	4
Ozcan	20	5	4
Zambo Anguisa	20	5	4
Danilo	20	5	4

Most Balls recovered in UCL Fantasy 2021/22

Table of players that were best at balls recovered in previous season. We calculated average balls recovered per 90 minutes, so number of minutes played doesnot influence the results.

Player	Balls recovered	Minutes played	Balls recovered per 90
Gvardiol	38	334	10.24
Solet	35	328	9.6
Capaldo	29	281	9.29
Kounde	46	450	9.2
Fernando	50	540	8.33
Reinildo	75	816	8.27
Akanji	41	450	8.2
Fabinho	73	849	7.74
L. Hernandez	49	572	7.71
Meunier	41	484	7.62
Thiago Silva	64	757	7.61
Pique	33	393	7.56
Balanta	33	407	7.3
Casemiro	74	914	7.29
Otamendi	63	810	7
Onguene	34	437	7
Sule	40	515	6.99
Pepe	27	349	6.96
De Light	48	627	6.89
Hendry	41	540	6.83
Tsimikas	26	344	6.8
Goretzka	35	466	6.76
Matviyenko	27	360	6.75
Bennacer	28	376	6.7
Felipe	35	472	6.67
Konate	53	720	6.63
Hummels	26	358	6.54
Witsel	34	471	6.5
Pavard	55	764	6.48
Tomori	30	418	6.46
Van Dijk	58	810	6.44
Militao	76	1076	6.36
Upamecano	46	660	6.27
Seiwald	45	649	6.24
Kondogbia	40	578	6.23
Bastoni	46	666	6.22
Gilberto	49	715	6.17
Kante	29	427	6.11
Dias	45	664	6.1
Zaidu	26	389	6.02

Most Balls recovered in UCL Fantasy 2019/20 and 2020/21 season

Table of players that were best at balls recovered in the past seasons. Again, we calculated average balls recovered per 90 minutes, so number of minutes played doesnot influence the results.

Player	19/20 Ball recovered per 90	20/21 Ball recovered per 90
Klostermann	8.78	11.25
Upamecano	8.31	10.2
Barrios	8	9.36
Blind	Not Available	9.3
Wober	8.33	9.3
Casemiro	6.91	9.1
Mukiele	Not Available	8.59
Fabinho	Not Available	8.51
Hummels	9.88	8.32
Mazraoui	Not Available	8.23
Kristensen	Not Available	8.2
Alcantara	8.52	8.08
Djimsiti	Not Available	7.75
Cancelo	Not Available	7.46
Akanji	Not Available	7.45
Toloi	Not Available	7.44
De Vrij	8.17	7.33
De Roon	6.24	7.25
D. Carlos	Not Available	7.16
C. Mata	Not Available	7.08
Marquinhos	4.64	7
TAA	Not Available	6.91
Sule	Not Available	6.91
Savič	Not Available	6.88
Lenglet	6.62	6.81
Jorginho	7.21	6.74
Danilo	Not Available	6.71
Kanté	Not Available	6.69
Pepe	Not Available	6.67
Ulmer	Not Available	6.67
Deli	7.83	6.51
T. Silva	7.67	6.44
Junuzovic	7.83	6.22
F. De Jong	Not Available	6.08
Alaba	Not Available	6.05
Van Dijk	9.72	0

How balls recovered influenced players points?

Centre backs and defensive midfielders are gaining big portion of points from this feature. That makes some centre backs much more appealing than more expensive attacking fullbacks. And there are some really cheap defensive midfielders who outscored premium mids just because of the balls recovered, too.

We think it really changes the dynamics of our teams. Players with big balls recovered potential have “higher floor” of points. For example centre back like Hummels or VVD may end up match with 5 points with no clean sheet and with 9 balls recovered (which is pretty common for some players). Imagine what happens when they add a clean sheet to that. Huge amount of points.

These kinds of players offer stability in their points outcome, because we don’t have to hope for attacking returns. On the other hand, their output is limited, their “points ceiling” is lower than the points ceiling of attacking players – especially in the case of defensive midfielders. You will get balls recovered points, clean sheet points and that’s it.

A tip for your UCL squad

So how could you use it in your fantasy team? We think you should choose one really cheap defensive mid (for example Fernando) to your ucl fantasy squad – great price for stable outcome of 4-6 points per match. Then pick at least 2 or 3 centre backs who are recovering balls and have high clean sheet potential. So with a clean sheet you will get 8-10 points, without CS 3-6. That could separate your team from the rest of the crowd and gain you a few extra points that could be really valuable in long run.

Predicting Balls Recovered

Is it possible to predict how many balls certain players recover in match? Mike tries to use data and model it. Read more about it in his article: Predicting Balls Recovered: a Data-Driven Attempt