How to Play Bundesliga Fantasy

With the help of expert manager Jay @FPLGunnersaurus who has finishes of 64th and 82nd in the world over the last two seasons, we take a look at how to play Bundesliga Fantasy. From managing our teams, how transfers work and any new changes, we have it covered.

Bundesliga Fantasy has launched for the 2024-2025 season (via the Bundesliga Fantasy Manager app only for now). This gives us plenty of time to tinker with our teams ahead of the season curtain raiser on Friday 23rd August. There we will see a local derby pitting Borussia Mönchengladbach against last season’s invincible champions Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

Squad Selection

Managers start off by selecting a squad of 15 players, costing no more than a total of 150 million. The squad must comprise of: two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards. This season however there is a change to how many players a manager can select from one club.

In prior seasons there was no limit to how many players we could own from one club. This meant that managers could target teams with great fixtures and select as many from those clubs as they wanted. This year the maximum number of players a manager can own is three players per club.

Managers will now need to stay engaged with the Bundesliga as the season progresses to know who the gems are. These type of players usually play for teams outside the big clubs such as Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Munich.

Managing Your Matchday Team and the Top XI Feature

One key thing to note with Bundesliga Fantasy is that you are able to make changes to your starting XI right up until the first kick-off of each matchday.

Ahead of a matchday managers must choose a matchday formation. That formation must be one of: 3-5-2, 3-4-3, 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-5-1, 5-3-2 or 5-4-1.

At the start of every matchday managers will need to lock in their starting XI in their preferred formation. This along with locking in their bench players (who are as incredibly important) as well as their three star players in each outfield position (more on that shortly).

At the end of each matchday Bundesliga Fantasy will automatically sub in your bench players who have scored more than those in their position in your starting XI. For example, you may have Patrik Schick who scored 80pts and Donyell Malen who scored 90pts in your starting XI. But, you have Serhou Guirassy on your bench who scored 130pts. Guirassy will auto-replace Schick at the end of the matchday.

This means that you will always have your highest scoring XI at the end of the matchday. This is based on the formation you selected at the start of the matchday.

Bench players can only replace players in your XI from the same position though. For example if you had Granit Xhaka on your bench (who has not come in already) who scored more than a defender still left in your team then Xhaka would remain rooted to your bench and the defender would stay in your starting XI.

Your star players can also be auto-subbed. But, only if a player from their position on your bench scores higher. This allows managers to try out different styles of play. One of those includes investing heavier in a certain position on a particular matchday.

Attack minded midfielders tend to be the highest scorers in the game. So, managers may look to invest in five premium midfielders and spread the rest of their 150 million across budget players across the remainder of their 15-man squad.

Star Players

Star players are essentially your matchday captains who score you 1.5x their matchday points. You’re allowed one in each outfield position.

Picking those right star players is imperative and could be the reason you gain a massive rank gain against managers whose star players flop.

There is a downside to this. If your star player is unexpectedly benched or misses out entirely, you may end up returning very little or nothing whatsoever.

If your star player misses out on the matchday squad entirely the star doesn’t move to someone else in that position. You’re not able to move it to someone else manually either. So, make sure you know they will play first.

Transfers

Between each matchday managers can make up to five transfers. This is as long as they remain within their budget. Transfers can be made at any time up until kick-off of the first game in that matchday. But note once they are confirmed they can’t be reversed.

It is recommended managers wait until the line-ups of the first game are announced before confirming those transfers as a result. This allows managers to take in those line-ups and news from the press conferences that have taken place that week.

There are also five unlimited transfer periods where managers can make wholesale changes to their squad. These come during international breaks and the Bundesliga winter break. This includes between MD2 and MD3, MD6 and MD7, MD10 and MD11, MD15 and MD16, and between MD26 and MD27.

Those windows allow managers to select squads for a set period of time rather than looking further into the future. For example as managers can make 15 changes after MD2 managers only actually need to pick their initial squad based on the first two matchdays. Managers can then change their entire team to target the next four matchdays before they’re able to make wholesale changes again.

Player Price Changes

Between matchdays player prices may fluctuate. This is based on the performance of that player compared to other players in that position on the previous matchday. These adjustments happen at the end of each matchday. This is when the transfer window for the following matchday opens.

Market values of a player will never fall lower than 1m. Bundesliga Fantasy also reserve the right to make manual adjustment to player prices in exceptional circumstances. One change to last season is that there will be no weekly on-sale players.

Managers have previously been able to build up budget by buying players one week with a 10% discount and then selling them the following week once the value of that player had gone back to normal. Bundesliga Fantasy have scrapped the feature this season. This means that a manager’s budget will only change based on the performances of the players they own and selling them.

How to Score Points

The biggest change to Bundesliga Fantasy this season is how players score points. There are new ways to score points this season. There are also ways of scoring points that have been removed from last season. The changes are so big though it needs an article of it’s own so keep your eyes peeled for that article coming shortly!