Fantasy Bundesliga Primer: Matchday 2

So my first week in Bundesliga fantasy was a pretty big dud. I went in with some assumptions and they were only successful enough to get me into the middle of the pack, ranking 83rd in our 173 team league with 99 points.

What Went Right in Fantasy Bundesliga

Captain a Bayern Munich player

I knew Bayern Munich were likely to blow away Werder Bremen so I captained Robert Lewandowski whose hat trick plus captaincy earned my team an astonishing 48 points. If I’d gone with Manuel Neuer or Mats Hummels they’d have garnered 20 or 24 points respectively with the captaincy.

Buy Low, Sell High seems to be off to a good start

Benno Schmitz at 2.1M is a steal and nabbed 9 points on the weekend. He won’t do that every week but his value allows me to re-focus some of the salary I had invested in a guy like Wendell into other parts of my team. Nabbing Jean Philippe Gbamin worked out as he added a further six points as a sub-$10M. Koen Casteels picked up value and looking to see long term how much he can rack up is going to be key here.

Emphasizing High Duel % Might Be a Viable Strategy

Between my four defenders and two defensive midfielders my team in aggregate earned 22 points based on duels won alone. Gbamin in particular nabbed 6 points off that situation and his otherwise stellar numbers were dragged down in a loss. I don’t expect that every week from Mainz. While defensive performances can certainly be a hard thing to bank on, there might be enough here to build a solid backline structure.

What Went Wrong in Fantasy Bundesliga

Midfield needs some work

My midfield was a mixed focus between duels won and goal scoring. Having Alessandro Schöpf not play severely hurt me, but Charles Aranguiz and Javi Martinez just didn’t pick up enough duels won to justify their presence. Javi, in particular, was struck by a low duels count while also suffering from the reduced clean sheet/defensive bonus’s that his teammates in Mats Hummels and Manuel Neuer got. Coming in I knew that might be an issue but figured I could make up for it in duels won. That didn’t work and I should pull the plug soon if that situation doesn’t change.

As I get three transfers every week, re-structuring my midfield should not be an issue but I can’t bank on being able to do that moving forward.

Lessons Learned for Week 2

1. Reconfigure the midfield to emphasize attacking players
2. Leverage low value buys for extra points in the starting lineup

Out: Wendell, Dong Won Ji, Charles Aranguiz

I’m going to give Javi Martinez another week mostly because he’s far cheaper than Aranguiz. Also, I love Javi.

In: Ousman Dembele, Franck Ribery, Peter Pekarik

I have Benno Schmitz so I’m capitalizing on that by adding another low price, high point guy from week one in the attempt to leverage some long term value in Hertha BSC’s Peter Pekarik. That allows me to transfer the surplus value in my defense to my striker set and replace Dong Won Ji with Ousman Dembele.

I’m also adding Franck Ribery because I already have Ja Cheol Koo and Yoshinori Muto already available to terrorize those horrendous Bremen and Hoffenheim backlines. Those two matchups, Augsburg vs Bremen and Mainz vs Hoffenheim, are key this week for my team. Even if Muto or Koo don’t score they should pick up points on the shots end. Add in Schalke’s mediocre performance in their first outing and these moves should give me a midfield advantage.

I’ll switch from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3. This is my final lineup: Yoshinori Muto, Robert Lewandowski, and Ousman Dembele: Franck Ribery, Ja Cheol Koo, and Javi Martinez: Benno Schmitz, Mats Hummels, Marvin Matip, Jean Philipp Gbamin, and Manuel Neuer. I’m definitely going to need a monster week so I can pick up some points this week as I’m about 50 behind the BFW/FTW leaders CN FC/HadyAubameyang FC who each share 145.

How are you re-configuring your Bundesliga fantasy team? What went right for you on Matchday 1?

It’s not too late to join our league and play along at Bundesliga.com (search for Bavarian Footballs Works + Fear The Wall). Sorry but you won’t get points for previous matchdays.