A Guide to Bundesliga Fantasy Football

With the FPL season now fully up and running there is only so much time that can be spent analysing statistics and deliberating over who to transfer in, as well as following press conferences and reading newspaper articles to make an ‘informed’ decision on who your captain for the week will be.

However, there is a solution to stop us all worrying so much about our FPL teams and that is to enter a team into the Official Bundesliga Fantasy game, in order to provide ourselves with a welcome distraction from FPL. The Bundesliga game is one of the biggest fantasy football games outside of FPL and there are many similarities in the rules of the two games meaning anyone who enjoys playing FPL will almost certainly enjoy Fantasy Bundesliga too.

There are some subtle differences in the rules, so in this article I will guide you through some of the key rule differences and also give some tips regarding the top players to select in your teams, plus potential bargain buys.

Rules

The squad template is the same as in FPL: you must pick 15 players made up of 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders and 3 attackers, from which you choose a starting XI for the gameweek, and these 11 players will score your points. The budget is 150M. Once the season has begun managers have significantly more flexibility than FPL with 3 transfers allowed per week meaning that you can potentially be more short term with your selections. There can also be wildcard weeks at random points through the season so watch out for these. Much like FPL, players prices can fluctuate throughout the game but rather than being based on ownership and transfers in and out the price changes are directly linked to performance. Here is a summary of how they work taken from the official site:

Player pricing will fluctuate based on the performance of each player compared to other players of the same position. Starting with week 1, an average score for each position will be determined each week for all players that played at least 70 minutes in a match. An individual player’s points above or below the position average will determine the player’s price change for the week.

Price increase:
400,000 – 10 or more points above the position average
300,000 – 6 to 9 points above the position average
200,000 – 3 to 5 points above the position average
No Change – 0 to 2 points above the position average

Price decreases:
No Change – 0 to 2 points below the position average
200,000 – 3 to 5 points below the position average
300,000 – 6 to 9 points below the position average
400,000 – 10 or more points below the position average

Other factors:

• 100,000 for any player not playing during the match day
• 100,000 for any player receiving a red card independent of minutes played
• Player value can not drop below 1,000,000
• Player value is determined after all the matches of the week have been played.

Scoring

Much of the scoring is similar to FPL so I will just review some of the key differences that are particularly noteworthy and then put a link to the full scoring table at the bottom of this section.

Firstly, there is no bonus points system but players can earn points for some actions other than scoring, assisting, and clean sheets. These include 3 points for every 2 saves made for keepers as well as points for every 2 passes leading to a shot,  every 2 shots on target and every 5 duels won. In the latter 3 cases the points awarded vary by position. One key thing that caught my eye was that defenders and keepers are only awarded 3 points for a clean sheet and also lose a point for every goal conceded as oppose to every 2 in FPL. Also, players who feature in a winning team each score 1 point whereas players in a losing team all score -1 points and if a team loses by 3 or more goals the penalty is -2 points. The scoring system for assists also differs from FPL and it mirror how the points scoring system for goals works with forwards scoring 3 points for an assist, midfielders 4 points and defenders 5 points.

How does this impact selection policies?

Goalkeepers

There is a fine balance to be had here as with a large amount of points on offer for making saves it is tempting to go for a keeper from a lower maybe newly promoted side who will be very busy but the risk here is the potential loss of points if they fall to a heavy defeat. For this reason I would say the safest option is a keeper from an upper mid table side like Stuttgart or Leverkusen who are likely to win games and have reasonable clean sheet potential but may be needed to make saves as they wont dominate games in the way Bayern do.

Defenders

With defenders awarded more points for assists as well as goals in this game it is even more essential than in FPL to pick defenders with attacking potential, especially full backs and wing backs who get forward and deliver lots of crosses into the box and maybe have some set piece duties such as Philipp Max from Augsburg who picked up 12 assists in the league last season.

Midfielders and Forwards

There is not too much difference from FPL in both of these positions with the key being to pick players who you think will obtain the best attacking returns with perhaps the only thing to be wary of being picking a talisman for a lower side as even if he plays well and gets returns he may be consistently penalised if his team are losing a lot of matches by big margins.

Top Picks

Robert Lewandowski, Forward, Bayern Munich, 17M

The top priced player in the game costing 2M more than anyone else. Despite this, Lewandowski should still be the first name is every team and while the word essential is often misused in the FPL community I would say that it very much applies to Lewandowski. He has scored 20+ goals in 6 out of the past 7 seasons and in the last 3 seasons averages a goal every 85 minutes. He recently scored a hattrick in the German Super Cup showing that his form is still there and playing in a free scoring Bayern team expected to dominate the league again there is no reason why he cannot enjoy another excellent season.

Marco Reus, Midfielder, Borussia Dortmund, 15M

A great talent whose career has been blighted by injury after injury but if he can stay fit Reus could be set for a great season. Averaging a goal involvement every 112 minutes across his Bundesliga career, Reus has tended to play on the left wing throughout his time at Dortmund. However he made his name playing as a central striker at Monchengladbach, his performances there under Lucien Favre earning him his big money move. The relevance of this is that Lucien Favre was appointed Dortmund manager this summer and has made Reus his captain for the upcoming season and coupled with Aubameyang’s January sale to Arsenal and the end of Michy Batshuayi’s loan spell the pre season indications are that Reus will again be deployed as a striker and the focal point of Dortmund’s attack. This would make him an extremely valuable OOP option especially if Favre can get the best out of him.

Joshua Kimmich, Defender, Bayern Munich, 14M

I could have recommended any member of the Bayern Munich defence as they tend to keep far more clean sheets than any other team in the league but Kimmich stands out due to his attacking potential. Still only 23, Kimmich has established himself as Bayern’s first choice RB and last season registered a goal and 12 assists in 29 league appearances. He was equally as impressive in the Champions League with 4 goals and 3 assists in just 11 games indicating that there is potential for him to score more league goals while maintaining his assist numbers this season.

Bargain Buys

Jordan Beyer, Defender, Borussia Monchengladbach, 1M

To get a starting player at this price in Fantasy Bundesliga is extremely rare but Beyer could be just that player. Due to a long term injury to new signing Michael Lang, Beyer has been given his chance in preseason and has impressed earning himself a start in Gladbach’s German Cup victory at the weekend. His manager has been full of praise for the 18 year old and the indications are that he will start the season as first choice. It is unsure how long he will stay in the team for but as a potential budget starter who can free up funds to spend elsewhere he is certainly a great option.

Joelinton, Forward, Hoffenheim, 2M

Potentially more of a risky selection than Beyer as you generally want all 3 of your forwards to be completely nailed on starters, Joelinton could still be a great selection to enable a strong midfield and defence. He is Hoffenheim’s top goal scorer in pre season with 6 goals including a hattrick in their German Cup victory at the weekend. He has spent the past two seasons on loan at Rapid Vienna and after the his performance in the Cup his manager Nagelsmann noted how much he had improved in his time there praising his performance. Hoffenheim were the 2nd highest scoring team in the Bundesliga last season and if Nagelsmann has the faith to play Joelinton in his attacking system he could be in for a breakout season.

How to join:

https://fantasy.bundesliga.com/