Following on from our article last week on the FanTeam German Monster GW27, it’s now time for the Midweek Monster in the German Bundesliga.

Our FISO team below will be entered into this week’s €20 entry (€25k prize pool) German 25K Monster, which has a maximum entry limit of 1,667 participants. The first 278 will partake in the prize pool and for this particular weekend, the winner will take home a cool €5,000 this weekend. Before moving onto our team selection, we want to highlight a couple of FanTeam rules that they apply to their Weekly Monster competition and which apply to this weekend’s German Midweek Monster as well.

Number one is that FanTeam have a rule called the ‘safety net’. The safety net comes into play when a selected player does not start in the Weekly Monster, because the game will then automatically replace this player with the next lowest-priced player from the same position (GK, DEF, MID, FOR) in the same team. This is regardless of whether or not your selected player does take to the field later in the game. This rule helps people who have entered a team into the German 25K Monster not to worry too much about whether their selected players will start or not, particularly if they know there are cheaper players for that same club in that same position who should start instead. If your captain or vice-captain don’t start then in Pursuit their replacement will score the 200% or 150% points increase instead so you can be more relaxed about choosing who to captain and vice captain.

Number two is that FanTeam also have a ‘stacking penalty’ for the German 25K Monster, which penalises teams that have selected more than one defenders/goalkeeper from the same club. The stacking penalty comes into play when you pick more than one defensive player (defenders or goalkeepers) from a particular club and this club records a clean sheet. The points awarded for this clean sheet will decrease by 1 point for each additional defensive player from the same club that you have selected. The stacking penalty has a maximum of minus 3 points. This rule helps stop multi-entrants from gaining an advantage by submitting block defence teams. A reasonable tactic can be to select two players from two different clubs for your Goalie and Defenders, which would see you incur just 2 single-point deductions if you nail both clean sheets correctly.

Finally, a new format is being applied to the upcoming German 25K Monster, called Pursuit. In this game mode, you get more bonus points the cheaper your players are (you gain 1 point for every 2 million euros underspent). Your captain will get double points, but he will also cost twice as much. Your vice-captain will get 150% more points, but he will also cost 150% more. You can read more Pursuit in more detail on the FanTeam website.

Don’t forget, the deadline for the upcoming German 25K Monster is set at 5.30PM (UK time) on Tuesday, May 26^th, 2020. You can enter a team earlier and make changes right up to the deadline. This means you have an hour to check the starting line-ups  for the 5.30PM (UK time) games, so you can change your selections accordingly up until the 5.30PM deadline, but not after.

German 25K Monster matches in gameweek 28 – Tuesday

How did our German 50K Monster team fare last week?

Formation: 4-4-2 |  Budget used: 99.9m |  Finish: 1790 / 2600 |  Prize pool: ///

Our team suggestion for the German 25K Monster on Tuesday in gameweek 28

Formation: 2-2-3 |  Budget used: 96.3m

General approach

The German 25K Monster varies from the classic Weekly Monster format in a few ways. Select a team consisting of 7 players from the eight teams playing on Tuesday, May 26^th. The 7 players are subject to a maximum 3 Forwards, a max 4 Midfielders and a max 5 Defenders (so you can choose 3 forewards and 4 midfielders if you want i.e. no defenders or a goalie) but no more than 4 players per team and, because this is the Pursuit mode, it means that managers are rewarded bonus points in their score for selecting cheaper assets (so you can pick who you want but the more you spend the more it costs you more in terms of points; in other words you gain 1 point for every 2 million euros underspent). The budget given by FanTeam to select 7 players should equate to the total of the top higest priced 7 players (with captain’s price doubled and vice-captain’s price at 150%) so you can pick who you want (strictly the highest budget you can use is 1.3m under the 106.3m budget due to the restriction on max 4 players per club and max 3 forwards). Both the stacking penalty and the safety net still apply to this tournament.

We have gone all in on two teams, namely Leverkusen (at home versus Wolfsburg) and Gladbach (away against Werder Bremen) and a single Bayern star in support. Budget would have allowed us to go all-in on attacking assets, for example, but considering the active Pursuit mode, we decided to trade in some budget expenditures for bonus point rewards (5). Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz is our captain for 26.2 million (2 x 13.1m) and Gladbach’s Ramy Bensebaini is our vice-captain for 13.4 million (1.5 x 8.9m).

BAYER LEVERKUSEN (home vs Wolfsburg)

Picks: Kai Havertz, Kerem Demirbay, Daley Sinkgraven

The Bundesliga has returned and it has done so with all engines blazing. Since restarting the season on May 16^th, we have already had two match days and the third one, gameweek 28, is upon us with the first four games tomorrow. Gameweek 29 is then set to start on Friday, which means a hellish rhythm of four gameweeks within 14 days. In other words, keep this in mind when considering starting line-ups for the German 25K Monster. This is another reason the Bundelsiga allow 5 substitutions per match so players can be rested to help prevent injury.

Leverkusen have come out of the corona-break in good form, taking six points from two games (1-4 at Werder and 1-3 at Gladbach). Super talent Kai Havertz played a big role in these victories with 3 goals that saw him record a total of 27 points on FanTeam. That has been in part due to him replacing usual striker Kevin Volland up top while the former was injured. The forward is said to be fit again, though it remains to be seen if trainer Peter Bosz starts him, considering Havertz’ blistering form. Whether he starts all the way up front or in his more natural number-ten spot, his current 10 goals and 5 assists in the league give us cause to believe that he can be decisive from any position. Therefore, he is also our captain in GW28a.

Our second Leverkusen pick is midfielder Kerem Demirbay, who, at 10.8 million and with Pursuit mode in mind, is 1.2 million less expensive than Bellaraby and 1.4 million less than Diaby. The German-Turkish player is a nailed-on part of Leverkusen’s central midfield and he already has 19 Bundesliga games to his name this season, with 5 assists and a goal to show for it. Since returning after the corona-break, he has recorded 1 goal, 2 assists, and a total of 19 FanTeam points. The fact that he is on plenty of set-pieces for Die Werkself reinforces our hopes of a nice return against Wolfsburg tomorrow.

We considered adding Bellaraby, Diaby, or even Volland to our German 25K Monster selection, but with Pursuit mode in mind, we decided to save a minimum of 3 million and a maximum of 3.3 million by selecting left wing-back Daley Sinkgraven. Besides budget and Pursuit considerations though, it’s also worth noting that the Dutchman is a starter in the league’s third-best defence overall (32 goals conceded in 27 games) and the second-best when looking at home games only (13 goals conceded in 13 games). On the other hand, Wolfsburg are not bad on their travels, but they’re no free-flowing goal-scoring machine either with 20 goals from 13 away games. We’re counting on Sinkgraven and his Leverkusen team mates here to justify picking him over more offensive assets in the form of a clean sheet and some bonus point rewards.

BORUSSIA MÖNCHENGLADBACH (away vs Werder Bremen)

Picks: Alessane Plea, Marcus Thuram, Ramy Bensebaini

Whilst our Leverkusen picks are largely based on current attacking form and the fact that they are playing a home game (albeit against a relatively strong opponent), our Gladbach picks attracted our attention with their decent form, the horrid home game performances of their opponent so far, and the increasingly strong indication that home team advantage has been considerably diminished by the absence of crowds in the stands. In terms of the individual players we have picked, we have taken an approach largely similar to our Leverkusen tactic: two premium attacking assets accompanied by a defensive asset. This results in a bonus points reward, plus Werder is the lowest-scoring outfit in home games by far this season.

Our first pick is French striker Alessane Plea, who already has 24 Bundesliga games, 9 goals, and 8 assists to his name this season. What’s more, in the two games since the end of the corona-break, he has scored a goal (during the 1-3 away win at Frankfurt) and provided an assist (during the 1-3 home loss to Leverkusen), rewarding him with 12 FanTeam points. Die Fohlen are chasing a Champions League spot and last weekend’s loss versus Leverkusen was a deception in that sense, so we’re expecting them to make amends and get back on the right track on Tuesday. If they manage to do so, Plea will more than likely be at the centre of it.

We have chosen to have Plea joined in our attack by a compatriot of his, namely Marcus Thuram. The Gladbach winger and son of former-World Champion Lilian Thuram was bought from French side EA Guingamp in the summer of 2019, and in his first season for Die Fohlen, the Frenchman already has 27 Bundesliga games, 8 goals, and 8 assists to his name. Tuesday’s opponent Werder Bremen boast the league’s second-worst defence, with only Mainz conceding more than Werder’s 59 goals from 27 games. When it comes to home games only, Die Grün-Weißen have conceded a worrying 30 goals in just 12 games, a tally bettered by no less than 15 teams in the league.

Very unfortunately for the home team though, their defending is not the only issue. Werder have also scored just 9 goals in 12 home games, which is considerably less than any other team in the league. That’s also one of the main reason for picking Gladbach defender Ramy Bensebaini instead of midfielders Hermann or Neuhaus, or forward Stindl. This saved us a minimum of 2.1 million and a maximum of 2.4 million in terms of budget expenditures. The Algerian left wing-back arrived at Gladbach in the summer of 2019 and has made an impression since then: 13 Bundesliga games, 5 goals, and 2 assists so far in his first season. Werder Bremen look like the perfect opponent for him to further improve his numbers and for Gladbach to get back on Champions League track.

BAYERN MÜNCHEN (away vs Borussia Dortmund)

Pick: Robert Lewandowski

For our seventh and final pick, we could have picked a fourth asset from either Leverkusen or Gladbach, but instead, we went with Germany’s current top scorer. Since the restart of the Bundesliga, Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski has continued doing what he was doing before the coronavirus put world football on hold: scoring goals. In 25 Bundesliga games so far, the Polish assassin has netted 27 times and provided 3 assists. He will be starting in the stand-out fixture of gameweek 28, when Bayern roll up to the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund for an authentic top-of-the-table clash. Not an easy game by any stretch for the reigning champions, not even when thinking back to their resounding 4-0 home victory over Dortmund in November of last year. Since then, Die Borussen were reinforced with the likes of Emre Can and the phenomenon known as Erling Haaland, leading to a run of 9 victories from the last 10 games. They will be raring to make it 10 out of the last 11 tomorrow and to reduce the current 4-point gap between them and the league leaders, but if there is one man who can rain on this potential yellow-black parade, it’s former-Dortmund star Robert Lewandowski.

As we said this team has been entered into the 20 euro FanTeam Midweek German Monster and we hope to report back next week that we’ve shared part of the 25,000 euros prize pool. You can also follow discussions about FanTeam games on FISO’s FanTeam Forum where we have a FreeRoll for those that want to learn a bit more about the game.

Following on from our article last week on the FanTeam German Monster GW26, this weekend it’s time for gameweek 27 in the German Bundesliga. Our FISO team below will be entered into this week’s €20 entry (€50k prize pool) German 50k Monster, which has a maximum entry limit of 3,000 participants. The first 555 will partake in the prize pool and for this particular weekend, the winner will take home a cool €7,500 this weekend. Before moving onto our team selection, we want to highlight a couple of FanTeam rules that they apply to their Weekly Monster competition and which apply to this weekend’s German 50k Monster as well. If you’re not sure how to play FanTeam Fantasy Bundesliga then check out our step by step video guide.

Number one is that FanTeam have a rule called the ‘safety net’. The safety net comes into play when a selected player does not start in the Weekly Monster, because the game will then automatically replace this player with the next lowest-priced player from the same position (GK, DEF, MID, FOR) in the same team. This is regardless of whether or not your selected player does take to the field later in the game. This rule helps people who have entered a team into the German 50K Monster not to worry too much about whether their selected players will start or not, particularly if they know there are cheaper players for that same club in that same position who should start instead.

Number two is that FanTeam also have a ‘stacking penalty’ for the German 50K Monster, which penalises teams that have selected more than one defenders/goalkeeper from the same club. The stacking penalty comes into play when you pick more than one defensive player (defenders or goalkeepers) from a particular club and this club records a clean sheet. The points awarded for this clean sheet will decrease by 1 point for each additional defensive player from the same club that you have selected. The stacking penalty has a maximum of minus 3 points. This rule helps stop multi-entrants from gaining an advantage by submitting block defence teams. A reasonable tactic can be to select two players from two different clubs for your Goalie and Defenders, which would see you incur just 2 single-point deductions if you nail both clean sheets correctly.

Don’t forget, the deadline for the upcoming German 50K Monster is set at 2.30PM (UK time) on Saturday, May 24^th, 2020. You can enter a team earlier and make changes right up to the deadline. This means you have an hour to check the starting line-ups  for the 2.30PM (UK time) games, so you can change your selections accordingly up until the 2:30PM deadline, but not after.

German 50K Monster matches in gameweek 27

How did our German 50K Monster team fare last week?

Formation: 4-3-3 |  Budget used: 99.9m |  Finish: 1027 / 2574 |  Prize pool: ///

Our team suggestion for the German 50K Monster in gameweek 29

Formation: 4-4-2 |  Budget used: 99.9m

General approach

The 27^th gameweek of the Bundesliga brings us a few more so-called favourable fixtures in comparison to last weekend. This has also resulted in a very expensive pool of potential player picks, which is also reflected in our team selection for this gameweek. We initially wanted to stick to players from just a few outfits (Bayern, Leipzig, Freiburg, Köln), but we had to start making some budgetary room eventually. As a result, our team consists of 3 Bayern players, 3 Freiburg players, 2 Wolfsburg players, a Leverkusen star, a Köln defender, and a Düsseldorf budget enabler.

Goalkeeper

We picked out goalkeeper with budget constraints in mind. In that sense, we were happy to see Wolfsburg playing at home this weekend, as Die Wolfe boast the league’s third-best defence, both overall and for home games only. That’s why, for 6.2 million, we brought in Belgian international Koen Casteels. As the seventh highest-scoring goalie on FanTeam’s German 50K Monster, he’s a more than decent pick, but the downside is that this weekend he is welcoming Borussia Dortmund in a crowd-less Volkswagen-Arena. A clean sheet looks complicated, but a few save points not so much.

Defenders

The first pick of our four-man defensive set-up is Bayern’s David Alaba, who, at 10.1 million, is also the most expensive defender in our team. The extremely versatile Austrian left-back, who can also play in the midfield or as a central defender, already has 21 Bundesliga games, 1 goal, and 1 assist to his name this season, and he will be starting against Eintracht Frankfurt at home coming Saturday. On top of that, when a set-piece is positioned well for a left-footed specialist, Alaba is one of the prime candidates for the reigning champions. Frankfurt are dead last when it comes to away games this season, with just 7 points taken from 12 games. Over that run, the scored just 11 and conceded a more than worrying 25 goals. Fingers crossed for returns at both sides of the pitch for our Bayern man.

Christian Günter is the first of three Freiburg assets in our team for gameweek 27. At a price of 7.8 million, he is not super cheap, but hear us out. Not only is he a nailed-on part on the left side of Freiburg’s defence, he is also given freedom to participate in attack. The tangible results until now: 2 goals and 7 assists in 26 games. Add to that the fact that current number 17 Werder Bremen are rolling up to the Schwarzwald-Stadion and Günter’s potential keeps rising. Bremen, after all, boast the league’s worst defence (conceding 59 goals in 26 games), while only Düsseldorf has a less prolific attack than them. In other words, we’re kind of counting on points here.

Our third defensive pick is Toni Leistner, the only Köln player on our roster this weekend. Considering Die Geißböcke were in decent form prior to the sudden corona-break and the fact that they are playing at home against Düsseldorf, we actually wanted to include at least one more team mate of Leistner’s, but budget made us decide otherwise. We stuck with the German 29-year old who arrived on loan from QPR at the very end of the last January transfer window and who has played 5 of the possible 7 Bundesliga games since then. He has no attacking returns to his name yet, but this weekend provides him with a good opportunity to get his counters going. Newly-promoted Fortuna Düsseldorf are coming to Cologne, who have scored just 14 goals in 13 away games, while conceding a whopping 27.

Our fourth and final defender is a complete budget pick. It basically came down to picking a defender from either Mainz (at home against Leipzig), Frankfurt (away to Bayern), and our pick, Düsseldorf’s Zanka. In the previous paragraph, we just pointed out Düsseldorf’s defensive frailty, so we are not expecting too much here. As a matter of fact, seeing as we have a defender from each team in the Köln-Düsseldorf game, we’d be extremely happy with a boring 0-0 draw.

Midfielders

Like our defence, our midfield is made up of four players with Bayern’s Leon Goretzka being the most expensive one at a price of 12 million on FanTeam this weekend. Our preferential midfield pick from the Bayern roster was actually Kimmich, but Goretzka gives us a good way into the starting line-up at 0.6 million less. On top of that, Kingsley Coman is priced 0.2 million lower still, which means that the Safety Net would apply automatically in case Goretzka doesn’t start. It’s very possible that Bayern won’t start with both against Frankfurt, but also extremely unlikely that neither Goretzka nor Coman will start, considering both are fit. The 25-year old German recorded a lovely 21 points on FanTeam from his last three Bundesliga games, courtesy of 2 goals and 1 assist, and he might just continue that purple patch on Saturday.

For gameweek 27 of the German 50K Monster, we have also gone with a real joker. Kai Havertz is the only Leverkusen player in our team, partly due to the prices of Leverkusen assets and partly due to the fact that Die Werkself are visiting Mönchengladbach coming Saturday afternoon. Defensively, Wolfsburg is very stable this season, but traditionally, this encounter has been full of goals. Just to give you an idea: 13 of the last 20 games between Leverkusen and Gladbach saw 3 goals or more scored between them. At the same time, Havertz resumed his Bundesliga in style by scoring 2 goals against Werder Bremen last weekend after trainer Peter Bosz started him all the way up front. Only three teams have scored more in away games than Leverkusen’s 24 goals, so we’re counting on their offensive prowess to deliver again this weekend.

Freiburg’s Vincenzo Grifo is joining Goretzka and Havertz on our midfield. The Italian-German left-winger is listed as a midfielder for FanTeam’s German 50K Monster, which gives him some additional out-of-position potential. In his first season for Freiburg, Grifo has already racked up 19 Bundesliga games in which he scored twice and provided 5 assists. This weekend, he is facing the league’s third-worst defence in terms of away games when Werder Bremen visit Freiburg. Die Grün-Weißen have conceded 29 goals in 13 games, while overall, this total reaches the worrying amount of 59. After Freiburg’s hard-fought 1-1 draw at Leipzig last weekend, we’re hoping Grifo and his team mates will build on that result against Werder this weekend.

Our fourth midfielder is Wolfsburg player Xavier Schlager. The 22-year old central midfielder is a nailed-on part of Wolfsburg starting eleven, which is kind of the minimum you want from a fantasy budget-enabler. On top of that though, he plays for a more than decent team at home this weekend, though the opposition will be formidable. Borussia Dortmund are just coming off an impressive 4-0 home victory over derby rivals Schalke 04, so they’ll be brimming with confidence. Wolfsburg though, is a more than solid unit this season, which is illustrated by the fact that only Bayern and Leipzig have conceded less goals. At the same time, Dortmund are a bit leaky away from home, having given up 23 goals in 13 games already. In other words, Schlager has his work more than cut out for him in the middle, but we would be surprised if the home team don’t get a few good opportunities themselves as well on Saturday.

Forwards

Robert Lewandowski. We’re going to be brief here, because, what is there left to say? He scored 26 goals in 24 Bundesliga games so far. He scored last weekend. He’s on penalties. He’s the highest-scoring game on FanTeam’s German 50K Monster. He’s playing at home against Frankfurt. Yes, his 15-million price tag is extreme, but… just pick him, captain him, and move on to the rest of your team.

Joining our star man in attack is our third Freiburg pick, striker Nils Petersen. The experienced German has been at the club since 2015 and has grown into an inevitability up front for the Breisgau-Brasilianer since then. This season, his tallies stand at 8 goals and 2 assists from a total of 2’015 Bundesliga minutes. With eight Bundesliga games still to go, Petersen will be aiming for at least double digits in terms of goals and what better way to continue that mission with a home game against Werder Bremen at home? Die Grün-Weißen boast the league’s leakiest defence and are already 9 points behind the safe 15^th spot (with one game in hand). Petersen might just be the one to complicate things further for them on Saturday.

As we said this team has been entered into the 20 euro FanTeam German Monster and we hope to report back next week that we’ve shared part of the 50,000 euros prize pool. You can also follow discussions about FanTeam games on FISO’s FanTeam Forum where we have a FreeRoll for those that want to learn a bit more about the game.