Bundesliga Fantasy 2026/2027 Round 2 Preview

Bundesliga Fantasy Round 2 preview: best buys, captain picks and hidden gems

Round 2 of Bundesliga Fantasy starts on Friday night with Stuttgart hosting Köln and finishes on Sunday evening in Frankfurt. The headline fixture is Bayern's trip to Schalke, where the model gives the champions an 82.1% win probability and 3.15 expected goals - the biggest mismatch of the round by a distance.

But that is not where the round is won. Everyone can see Bayern away at a promoted side. The gap between a good team and a great one this round sits in three places: the goalkeeper slot, the cheap forward spots, and knowing which widely-owned names have a bad Saturday coming.

Fixture overview: the four teams to target in round 2

Two teams that usually belong on that list are missing. Borussia Dortmund travel to Hoffenheim as only marginal favourites (42.8% win, 21.2% clean sheet chance), and RB Leipzig go to Werder Bremen at 48.2%. Neither is a fixture to build a defence around. You can check every kick-off and every price move on the Bundesliga Fantasy schedule, and the underlying match odds behind these numbers on the market probabilities page.

Goalkeepers: buy saves, not clean sheets

This is the single most misunderstood position in Bundesliga Fantasy. A save is worth 35 points and there is no clean-sheet bonus at all - a goal conceded only costs 20. That means the best goalkeeper of the round is very often the one facing the most shots.

Loris Karius (9.3m, Schalke 04) is the clearest example the model has produced all season. Schalke host Bayern and are given a 6.1% win probability, and Karius is projected for 5.49 saves - the highest save volume of any keeper in the round. The result is 214.4 projected points - the seventh-highest projection of any player in the round, and the highest of any goalkeeper or defender by a distance. He is barely owned, which makes him the strongest differential on the board.

If that feels too contrarian, the safer high-volume options are Finn Dahmen (9.5m, Augsburg) at 183.1 points on 3.85 projected saves, and Nahuel Noll (7.7m, Paderborn) at 181.3 with the best six-round profile of any cheap keeper (181 → 202 → 183 → 190 over rounds 2 to 5).

Budget pick: Fabian Bredlow (4.8m, VfB Stuttgart) - 136.1 points at 28.3 points per million, the best value ratio of any goalkeeper in the game. He does not have Karius's ceiling, but at under 5m he frees up serious money for the forward line.

Defenders: the penalty takers are the edge

Defenders score for goals (120), assists (70), shots, duels and dribbles - so an attacking full-back on set-pieces is worth far more than a solid centre-back on a clean sheet.

Kevin Diks (10.6m, Borussia Mönchengladbach) is the best defender in the round at 175.1 projected points, and the reason is simple: he is Gladbach's penalty taker (98% share) in a home game against Elversberg the model rates at 55.5% win and 32.8% clean sheet. He is almost unowned.

Maximilian Mittelstaedt (17.2m, VfB Stuttgart) at 158.9 points is the premium alternative - also on penalties (98% share), also at home, with 0.21 expected assists. Alphonso Davies (16.3m, Bayern München) projects 157.3 but only 70 minutes, so treat him as a rotation risk rather than a set-and-forget pick. If you want the Bayern defence without the rotation, Dayot Upamecano (17.0m) carries the highest clean sheet probability of the round's leading defenders at 40%.

Budget picks: Laurin Curda (5.8m, Paderborn) is the standout at 155.6 points - 26.6 points per million, and he holds up over the next three rounds too. Below that, Josha Vagnoman (6.1m, VfB Stuttgart) gets 133.2 points at home to Köln, and Keita Kosugi (3.2m, Eintracht Frankfurt) returns 114.5 points for pocket change (35.8 points per million).

Midfielders: one premium, then a big value gap

Michael Olise (37.5m, Bayern München) is the only midfielder in the same conversation as the elite forwards - 250.3 points for round 2, 0.55 expected goals and 0.43 expected assists at Schalke, and the second-best six-round weighted score in the entire game (964). He is expensive, and he is worth it: rounds 3 and 4 project 280 and 310.

Below him the market is much softer than people assume. Ibrahim Maza (16.0m, Bayer Leverkusen) at 183.5 points is the next best, but two cheaper names get you most of the way there:

Prömel at 8.7m is the buy of the position - 84 projected minutes at home to Köln for less than a quarter of Olise's price. Tillman is the higher-ceiling option but only projects 65 minutes.

Hidden gems: Bambase Conte (5.5m, Hoffenheim) is essentially unowned and projects 153.3 points on 85 minutes at home to Dortmund - 27.9 points per million. Lukas Petkov (6.3m, Elversberg) at 147.7 has the added upside of being his side's penalty taker (93% share), and he holds up remarkably well across the horizon (148 → 138 → 151 → 139 → 160). For a pure squad-filler, Ezechiel Banzuzi (4.1m, RB Leipzig) gives you 121.9 points at 29.4 per million.

Forwards: five genuine premiums, and the cheapest is the best value

Round 2 is unusually deep at the top of the forward line, and the pricing does not match the projections.

Patrik Schick (18.4m, Bayer Leverkusen) is the pick of them. He tops the round on 0.63 expected goals, he takes Leverkusen's penalties (93% share), and at 18.4m he costs half of Kane while projecting 34 more points. Union Berlin arrive with a 14.6% win probability and 1.05 expected goals.

Luis Diaz (28.8m) is the best long-term hold in the whole game - 998 on the six-round weighted score, ahead of Olise and Kane, with a trajectory of 257 → 292 → 329 across rounds 2 to 4. If you can only carry one Bayern attacker, the model prefers Díaz to Kane at 9.3m less. Remember the three-per-club cap when you start stacking Bayern.

Serhou Guirassy (18.5m) is the round-3 play. His trip to Hoffenheim is only the fifth-best forward fixture this week at 237.0, but round 3 at home to Paderborn projects 316.0 - one of the two highest single-round scores anywhere in the next six rounds. Buy him now and you own the round-3 spike as well.

Mid-price value: Tim Kleindienst (11.5m, Bor. Mönchengladbach) returns 202.4 points on a full 84 minutes at home to Elversberg - the best points-per-million of any outfield player above 200 points. Jonathan Burkardt (13.4m, Eintracht Frankfurt) gets 201.4 with a 71% penalty share, though on a projected 64 minutes.

Hidden gems: the cheap end of the forward list is where leagues are won this round. Marvin Pieringer (2.8m, Paderborn) projects 157.9 points at 57.0 points per million - by some margin the best value in the game, and he is owned by almost nobody. Patson Daka (6.2m, Hamburger SV) gives 157.4 with an 84% penalty share, and Younes Ebnoutalib (3.4m, Eintracht Frankfurt) returns 145.1 on 78 minutes. Two of those three in your bench-adjacent slots is what pays for Olise or Díaz at the top.

Captain picks for Bundesliga Fantasy round 2

Your captain doubles, so this is the single biggest decision of the round.

1. Patrik Schick (18.4m, Leverkusen) - 265.6 pP, the highest in the game. Home to the weakest visiting attack of the round, on penalties, with 84 projected minutes. The complete captaincy case.
2. Luis Diaz (28.8m, Bayern) - 257.0 pP. Marginally behind Schick on the round but the safest floor, in the game with the highest team expected goals (3.15). Captain him if you would rather not sweat a single fixture.
3. Deniz Undav (21.9m, Stuttgart) - 265.4 pP, effectively tied with Schick, but the model has him at 73 minutes rather than 84. That minutes gap is the reason he ranks third rather than first.

Michael Olise (250.3) and Serhou Guirassy (237.0) are the next two, and Guirassy becomes the outright captain call in round 3. Anything outside this five is a punt rather than a plan. Compare all of them side by side on the Bundesliga Fantasy player picks page, and see how the model builds a full squad around them with optimal teams.

Who to sell before round 2

These are the widely-owned names whose round 2 does not hold up:

• Nathaniel Brown (15.5m, Bayern München) - the most-owned player in the game, and the model projects him for only 58 minutes and 124.1 points, falling to 113.6 in round 3. A rotation-risk full-back at 15.5m is the worst combination on this list. If you want Bayern defence, Upamecano is 1.5m cheaper on far more secure minutes.
• Julian Ryerson (12.8m, Borussia Dortmund) - 98.6 points away at Hoffenheim, where Dortmund's clean sheet chance is just 21.2%.
• Angelo Stiller (16.4m, VfB Stuttgart) - 126.6 points this round and 103.9 next, despite the friendly fixture. Prömel does the same job in the same team for half the price.
• Said El Mala (11.9m, 1. FC Köln) - not a sell so much as a wait. Away at Stuttgart he projects 147.7 on 64 minutes; round 3 at home to Werder jumps to 189.5. Bring him in next week instead.
• Zero-minute names - the model projects no minutes at all in round 2 for Yan Diomande (27.4m, RB Leipzig), Romano Schmid (17.8m, Werder Bremen). That is a lot of budget doing nothing. Check the predicted lineups for the Bundesliga before the Friday deadline.

How to use your transfers

You get five free transfers every round here and they do not carry over, so there is no reason to hoard them. The practical shape of a strong round 2: one elite forward captained, Olise or Prömel in midfield, Diks or Curda taking the cheap penalty-taking defender slot, and Karius or Bredlow in goal - with Pieringer and Ebnoutalib holding the budget together at the bottom of the squad.

More round-by-round analysis is in the Bundesliga Fantasy preview hub, including our round 1 preview. If you are new to the game, start with our fantasy football guides.

FAQ

Who should I captain in Bundesliga Fantasy round 2?

Patrik Schick. He tops the round at 265.6 projected points, takes Leverkusen's penalties with a 93% share, and hosts a Union Berlin side given only a 14.6% win probability and 1.05 expected goals. Luis Diaz (257.0) is the safer alternative in Bayern's 3.15-expected-goal fixture at Schalke, and Deniz Undav (265.4) matches Schick on points but is projected for 73 minutes rather than 84.

Which goalkeeper is best for round 2?

Loris Karius of Schalke, at 214.4 projected points. Bundesliga Fantasy pays 35 points per save and has no clean-sheet bonus, so the keeper facing the most shots usually wins the position - and Karius is projected for 5.49 saves against Bayern. Finn Dahmen (183.1) is the safer version of the same idea, and Fabian Bredlow at 4.8m is the best budget option at 28.3 points per million.

What are the best cheap picks in Bundesliga Fantasy round 2?

Marvin Pieringer of Paderborn at 2.8m is the standout, projecting 157.9 points for 57.0 points per million. Keita Kosugi (3.2m, Frankfurt) and Younes Ebnoutalib (3.4m, Frankfurt) fill out the cheap slots, while Laurin Curda (5.8m, Paderborn) at 155.6 points and Bambase Conte (5.5m, Hoffenheim) at 153.3 are the best sub-6m outfield picks.

Should I buy Serhou Guirassy now or wait?

Buy now. Dortmund's trip to Hoffenheim is only a 42.8% win fixture and he still projects 237.0 points, and round 3 at home to Paderborn projects 316.0, one of the two highest single-round scores anywhere in the next six rounds. Waiting a week means paying for the same player and missing round 2's return.

Which popular players should I avoid in round 2?

Nathaniel Brown is the most-owned player in the game and projects only 124.1 points on 58 minutes. Julian Ryerson (98.6) faces a Dortmund fixture with a 21.2% clean sheet chance, and Angelo Stiller (126.6) is outscored by his own team-mate Grischa Prömel at half the price. Yan Diomande (27.4m) and Romano Schmid (17.8m) are projected for no minutes at all.

This preview was written by TheFantasyTool AI - verified by Nicolai @ TheFantasyTool