Omar Richards, Ansgar Knauff and the Top 5 budget enablers in Bundesliga Fantasy
Omar Richards should get a run in Bayern Munich's defence with Alphonso Davies and Lucas Hernandez injured, while Ansgar Knauff costs relative buttons…
bundesliga.com takes an early look at five of the best in 2021/22…
Club: Bayern Munich
Position: Defender
Value: 8M
Bayern will be without left-backs Alphonso Davies and Lucas Hernandez for most of August, due to ankle and knee injuries respectively, but their loss should be Omar Richards' gain, and - with the England U21 cap only costing 8M in-game - also yours.
Richards is likely to get Davies' slot as a left wing-back in Julian Nagelsmann's preferred 3-4-3 system, which means greater potential attacking returns alongside the points he will pick up as a defender.
Club: Borussia Dortmund
Position: Forward
Value: 4M
Ansgar Knauff broke onto the scene at the tail end of last season, getting a run of games in March and April which saw him pick up his first goal and assist in the Bundesliga as well as starting home and away against Manchester City in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.
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A winger listed as a forward rather than a midfielder isn't ideal from a Fantasy point of view, but at only 4M, Knauff frees up a lot of budget to spend elsewhere, and the fact he should play much more this season with Jadon Sancho leaving for Manchester United further strengthens his case.
Club: VfB Stuttgart
Position: Goalkeeper
Value: 2M
Stuttgart acted quickly in replacing last season's Dortmund-bound No.1 Gregor Kobel with Florian Müller, but the former Mainz man is in action for Germany at the Olympics in Tokyo this summer. The further Die Mannschaft go in the competition, the more likely Müller will be given a rest early in the season, which could make Fabian Bredlow a steal.
When he stood in for Kobel against Augsburg on Matchday 32 last term, Bredlow racked up 14 points despite not keeping a clean sheet in Stuttgart's 2-1 win. More of the same in their season-opening game against Greuther Fürth would be very welcome from a 2M goalkeeper.
Club: Cologne
Position: Midfielder
Value: 7M
The season before last, Kainz had 12 goal returns (five goals and seven assists) at a rate of one every 130 minutes he played - which was a fine tally for a winger playing in a team who finished 14th, just six points above the automatic relegation places.
Knee surgery denied the Billy Goats their Austrian wing wizard for 28 league games last term, but he was back in time to help save them from the drop, grabbing two assists as his side overturned a 1-0 deficit to beat Holstein Kiel 5-1 in the relegation play-off second leg.
Club: Union Berlin
Position: Defender
Value: 3M
Christopher Lenz has been a Fantasy favourite for some time now. Simply a budget-busting defender likely to start in Union Berlin's maiden Bundesliga campaign in 2019/20, the left-back's price climbed last season, but so did his points, up to 171 in total, with Urs Fischer employing wing-backs in 68 percent of his games.
With Lenz leaving for Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer, Niko Gießelmann is the most likely to take his spot on an attacking 3-4-3. At only 3M, the former Fortuna Düsseldorf man could combine both factors which made Lenz so attractive over the previous two seasons.
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