The Most Balls Recovered in UCL Fantasy

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 a stable route to getting fantasy points.

Most Balls Recovered in UCL Fantasy 2022/23

Table of players that were best at balls recovered in the last season. We calculated the average balls recovered per match, so the number of matches played does not influence the results.

Name	Team	Position	Balls Recovered Per Match	Balls Recovered	Matches
Hincapie	Leverkusen	Defender	9	45	5
Kondogbia	Atlético de Madrid	Midfielder	8.67	26	3
Otamendi	Benfica	Defender	8	72	9
Ramos	Paris	Defender	7.88	63	8
Mechele	Club Brugge	Defender	7.75	62	8
Balerdi	Marseille	Defender	7.67	46	6
Savić	Atlético de Madrid	Defender	7.67	23	3
Tuta	Frankfurt	Defender	7.57	53	7
Sundgren	M. Haifa	Defender	7.5	30	4
Hasebe	Frankfurt	Midfielder	7.25	29	4
Fofana	Chelsea	Defender	7.2	36	5
Perić	Dinamo Zagreb	Defender	7.17	43	6
Šutalo	Dinamo Zagreb	Defender	7.17	43	6
Thiago Silva	Chelsea	Defender	7.13	57	8
Álvarez	Ajax	Midfielder	7	42	6
Pavlović	Salzburg	Defender	7	42	6
Kjær	Milan	Defender	7	42	6
Bondar	Shakhtar Donetsk	Defender	6.67	40	6
Koulibaly	Chelsea	Defender	6.57	46	7
Tomori	Milan	Defender	6.5	65	10
Rabiot	Juventus	Midfielder	6.4	32	5
Alonso	Barcelona	Defender	6.4	32	5
Seiwald	Salzburg	Midfielder	6.33	38	6
Verratti	Paris	Midfielder	6.29	44	7
Uribe	Porto	Midfielder	6.29	44	7
Süle	Dortmund	Defender	6.25	50	8
Kalvach	Viktoria Plzeň	Midfielder	6.17	37	6
Gonçalo Inácio	Sporting CP	Defender	6.17	37	6
Alexander-Arnold	Liverpool	Defender	6.14	43	7
N'Dicka	Frankfurt	Defender	6.13	49	8
Di Lorenzo	Napoli	Defender	6.1	61	10
António Silva	Benfica	Defender	6.1	61	10
Rodri	Man City	Midfielder	6	72	12
Kim	Napoli	Defender	6	54	9
Romero	Tottenham	Defender	6	42	7
Dier	Tottenham	Defender	6	42	7
Tah	Leverkusen	Defender	6	36	6
Jorginho	Chelsea	Midfielder	6	36	6
Seck	M. Haifa	Defender	6	36	6
Reinildo	Atlético de Madrid	Defender	6	36	6
Kossounou	Leverkusen	Defender	6	30	5
Hummels	Dortmund	Defender	6	24	4
Pepe	Porto	Defender	6	24	4
Sow	Frankfurt	Midfielder	5.88	47	8
Mišić	Dinamo Zagreb	Midfielder	5.83	35	6
Gvardiol	Leipzig	Defender	5.83	35	6
J. Timber	Ajax	Defender	5.83	35	6
Lobotka	Napoli	Midfielder	5.8	58	10
Lundstram	Rangers	Midfielder	5.8	29	5
Rrahmani	Napoli	Defender	5.71	40	7
Kimmich	Bayern	Midfielder	5.67	51	9
Emre Can	Dortmund	Defender	5.57	39	7
Akanji	Man City	Defender	5.55	61	11
Rúben Dias	Man City	Defender	5.5	66	12
Stepanenko	Shakhtar Donetsk	Midfielder	5.5	33	6
Lavi	M. Haifa	Midfielder	5.5	33	6
Vavro	Copenhagen	Defender	5.5	22	4
Florentino	Benfica	Midfielder	5.4	54	10
Orbán	Leipzig	Defender	5.38	43	8
Dedić	Salzburg	Defender	5.33	32	6
Jenz	Celtic	Defender	5.33	32	6
Danilo	Paris	Midfielder	5.29	37	7
Thiaw	Milan	Defender	5.25	21	4
Sands	Rangers	Midfielder	5.25	21	4
Grujić	Porto	Midfielder	5.25	21	4
Bassey	Ajax	Defender	5.17	31	6
Acerbi	Inter	Defender	5.08	61	12
Jakić	Frankfurt	Midfielder	5	40	8
Olivera	Napoli	Defender	5	40	8
Juranović	Celtic	Defender	5	30	6
Andrich	Leverkusen	Midfielder	5	25	5
Danilo	Juventus	Defender	5	25	5
Eric García	Barcelona	Defender	5	20	4
Meunier	Dortmund	Defender	5	20	4

Data source: UEFA Player Stats

Most Balls recovered in UCL Fantasy 2021/22

Table of players that were best at balls recovered in the 2021/22 season. We calculated the average balls recovered per 90 minutes, so the number of minutes played did not 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

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 influence players’ points?

Centrebacks and defensive midfielders are gaining a big portion of points from this feature. That makes some centrebacks 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 a “higher floor” of points. For example centre back like Otamendi may end up match with 4 points with no clean sheet and with 6 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 to your UCL fantasy squad – great price for a stable outcome of 4-5 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 8-9 points, without CS 3-5. That could separate your team from the rest of the crowd and gain you a few extra points that could be really valuable in the long run.

Predicting Balls Recovered

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