Entering the Semi-Final stage of the 2023-24 UWCL, most Fantasy League participants will probably be looking to fill their team with players who they feel are most likely to reach the final. In the Semi-Final stage – played over two legs, on April 20 and 27-28 – Fantasy League players can pick as many as 6 players from one team (allowing all 6 players to feature in the starting XI).

Since the start of the tournament, defending champions Barcelona have been the clear favourites to do just that, especially with their next opponents Chelsea showing signs of some late-season fatigue after a couple of recent losses in the WSL to title challengers Man City and then to Man Utd in the FA Cup Semis.

As a result of Barcelona’s dominance, the increased allowance of players in the Semis, and a budget boost of $500,000 from the Quarter-Finals stage, many Fantasy League contestants will be looking to add some big names from the Spanish juggernaut.

But who have been the best players this season from the Blaugrana? And which players have been the best picks?

With 7 players from one team allowed in the Final, let’s take a look at Barça’s 7 highest points scorers in this year’s inaugural UWCL ‘ShePlays’ Fantasy League competition.

This first table shows Norwegian sensation Caroline Graham Hansen in pole position after the Quarter-final stage. Not only is she the best of the Barça players but she also tops the list among all players in the competition. In fact, the 7 best players from Barcelona make-up 70% of the overall top ten; the remaining 3 players coming from Olympique Lyonnais [highlighted below in bold].

It is interesting to observe how this magnificent 7 have done in all competitions, with various players leading in different categories:

As stated, when it comes to the UWCL, Graham Hansen is the current points leader (133), with the Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati close behind in second (123). However, Salma Paralluelo has 106 points with a price tag of only 600K, making the Spanish striker probably the best value pick of the tournament, so far.

By using a couple of formulas, we can see more clearly who are the best picks from Barça’s best. While Graham Hansen and Bonmati lead on fantasy points, they are also among 10 players from this season’s competition to have been priced at the maximum limit of 1 Million.

Seeing as our UWCL pricing of players ranges from 200K to 1M, with increments of 50K (and then increments of 100K from the 500K mark) – thus giving us 12 different pricing options – we could divide a player’s overall points by the figure of 12, to get an idea of a player’s ‘Points-per-Price’ ratio (PPP). However, because price increments increase by 100K after 500K values, the pricing units ought to be weighted, so prices from 600K should be worth 2 units (thus making a total of 17 units).

Anyway…, using this method, Salma Paralluelo tops the table as the best value player, with Lucy Bronze taking the silver medal (so far), and Spanish forward Mariona Caldentey taking the bronze.

We should also bear in mind, however, that Graham Hansen has played one game fewer (though, it was not so obvious in advance that she would be benched for that particular group game). However, given that one could, technically, have switched her out for that game, it is worth showing that – in terms of ‘Points-per-Appearance’ – Graham comes out on top (with Bronze, this time, taking the bronze, behind Bonmati).

Perhaps an even more accurate way to calculate the best value-for-money player is to actually combine the two formulas. So, if we were to give Graham, Bronze, Batlle, and Guijarro a one game handicap (for the one UWCL game that they so far missed), then we could divide 8 (games) by 7 and multiply that by the PPP score to reflect more fairly on their performances throughout the competition.