Bundesliga Fantasy: Teams With the Best and Worst Fixtures to Start the Season

The fixtures for the 2022/23 Bundesliga Fantasy season are out, and in this article, we look at the teams with the most as well as least favorable schedules to start the season before the international break.

Bundesliga Fixtures for the 22/23 Season

📅 | #BLFantasy Fixture Tracker Until The First International Break

🍺 Bayern won’t meet any of last term’s Top 4.

🐝 Dortmund will face all promoted sides and Hertha, who narrowly avoided relegation from the Bundesliga last term. pic.twitter.com/zCsnnJZaGk

— Official DNL (@DNLFantasy) June 17, 2022

Note: The above tracker is only till the first International Break. You can find the full list of fixtures for the 22/23 season on the Bundesliga website.

Teams to Target in Bundesliga Fantasy

Bayern Munich

Bayern still remain the team to beat after comfortably winning their 10th consecutive Bundesliga title with an eight-point gap over Dortmund in second, and they couldn’t have asked for a better run to start the next season. They face none of the top four teams in the first seven matchdays. However, they face bogey team Eintracht Frankfurt—who have beaten them at least once in each of the last three seasons—on the opening weekend and Borussia Mönchengladbach, who have also beaten them at least once in each of the previous five seasons.

Besides those games, the Bavarians face teams that they scored a lot of goals against last season, such as Wolfsburg (3 goals per game), Bochum (5.5 goals per game), Union Berlin (4.5 goals per game), and Stuttgart (3.5 goals per game). Augsburg is an exception, with the team scoring only one goal in each of the Bavarian derbies. Still, you would expect some high-scoring games from Bayern to start the year, especially with new signing Sadio Mané, who scored 16 goals in the Premier League last season, adding more firepower to the attack. Hoarding Bayern players at the start of the season has been a rewarding strategy, and we might see the same thing happening again.

Bayer Leverkusen

The first fixture facing Dortmund away isn’t the easiest fixture on paper, but it has generally been a high-scoring one with an average of 5.3 goals in the last seven times these teams have met, so there is no reason not to pick a Leverkusen player. And if you hold them for longer, you can take advantage of their fixtures turning from MD2 onwards with games against Augsburg, Hoffenheim, Mainz, Freiburg, Hertha and Werder Bremen before the international break, where we could expect plenty of goals from the strongest Bayer Leverkusen side in almost two decades.

Borussia Dortmund

Barring their MD1 fixture against Bayer Leverkusen, BVB have one of the easiest schedules to start the season with games against Freiburg, Werder Bremen, Hertha, Hoffenheim, and Schalke—all teams that concede a lot of goals, shots, or both. While the match against RB Leipzig on MD6 is tricky, one could make an argument that Dortmund would fancy their chances against the Bulls with only two losses against them in 10 matches since 2017. However, it is worth noting that both of those losses came last season.

Despite one of the world’s best young players Erling Haaland leaving the side, it seems impossible not to have at least one player from this new-look Dortmund side with some high-profile reinforcements coming in, such as Adeyemi, Schlotterbeck, Süle, Özcan, and possibly Haller in the coming days.

Other than the players, the club decided to part way with Marco Rose and make Edin Terzić the head coach, this time on a permanent basis. During his previous tenure, the club scored 2.3 goals per game, and Sancho (13G, 13A in 27 matches), Reus (8G, 13A in 31 matches), Guerreiro (4G, 6A in 27 matches), and Haaland (24G, 10A in 27 matches), in particular, played some of the best-attacking football of their careers under him. More of the same is expected in his second stint as Dortmund try to put a brake on Bayern’s title-winning run and win their first championship in 11 years.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Die Fohlen arguably have the best set of first three fixtures among any team in the league. Their first game is versus Hoffenheim at home, against whom they scored five goals in the last match just over a month ago, and despite a managerial change, the team has a lot of work to do after ending the season with the worst form in the league of nine games without a win. Next up, they face possibly the weakest team in the league in Schalke, who return to the league after a one-year hiatus, and Hertha, who narrowly missed out on replacing with a 1-2 comeback victory in the second leg of the relegation playoffs.

Borussia themselves have their work cut out with no notable signings yet, and a few first-team players expected to leave the squad. Still, if they manage to hold Hofmann, who carried his career-best form into the Nations League with Germany, you would back them to win their first set of games. Considering their record against Bayern, maybe they could even snatch all three points on MD4, even though that is highly unlikely.

SC Freiburg

Freiburg were one of the league’s surprise teams last season, finishing 6th, and with head coach Christian Streich heading into his 12th season as manager of the team, the expectations have never been higher. He has led the team from the second division to the Europa League, and despite rumors that he could lose Flekken and Grifo after Schlotterbeck, you would back him to find good replacements and overperform as always.

Within the first four matchdays, they face teams that narrowly avoided relegation and finished 13th-15th (Bochum, Augsburg and Stuttgart) in addition to Dortmund, so Freiburg players will be popular picks at the start before an away game against Bayer Leverkusen triggers a sell-off.

Honorable Mentions

VfL Wolfsburg

Despite away games against Bayern on MD2 and Leipzig on MD4, it is hard to overlook Wolfsburg as they face both of the promoted teams—Schalke and Werder Bremen—in the first three gameweeks. After the third matchday, however, things look bleak for them with games against Leipzig, Köln, Frankfurt, and Union Berlin, who have been strong defensively and finished the season on a high note. The club had a shocking season going from a top-four finish to relegation contenders, but the club will be optimistic after signing Bayern’s former Bundesliga-winning coach Niko Kovač.

FC Köln

Although they face Pokal winners RB Leipzig and Europa league winners Eintracht Frankfurt in back-to-back away games on MD2 and MD3, Köln players, particularly Modeste and Uth, will be popular as differential picks in the opening weekend as they face newly promoted Schalke. It helps that we will have probably have three transfers per week for the season again, so you can hop off once their fixtures turn.

VfB Stuttgart

Also worth a shout are Stuttgart, who have an excellent run between matchday 2-5 with games against Werder Bremen, Freiburg and Schalke. It could be a good time to invest in differential picks such as Borna Sosa and Saša Kalajdžić, but that also depends on their price in Bundesliga Fantasy and whether either or both leave the club this season with strong interest from the Premier League.

Teams to Avoid in Bundesliga Fantasy

Hertha BSC

Hertha got the short end of the stick and have by far the worst set of fixtures to start the season. Sandro Schwarz’s men face fierce local rivals Union Berlin on the first matchday, with games against Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia, Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and Mainz to follow. The only easy fixture they have is against Augsburg away on MD5, but even that game isn’t as straightforward.

After narrowly avoiding relegation last season despite a €375 million investment by Lars Windhorst since 2019, the club will look to gain some momentum right from the first game. If they sign some decent players, they could finish in the top 15. Still, from a Bundesliga Fantasy perspective, Hertha assets are a strong avoid as it stands.

Schalke

If you have played Bundesliga Fantasy the last time Schalke were in the first tier, you won’t be able to get the visual of them losing 8-0 to Bayern Munich in the opening weekend out of your head. While they might’ve hoped for a much more favorable set of fixtures this time around, games against FC Köln, Borussia, Wolfsburg and Union are far from it, so it might take some time for the blues to get their first win of the season. On the other hand, fellow promoted side Werder Bremen face Wolfsburg and Stuttgart in their first two weeks, so they would be a lot more optimistic about getting some points.

Bochum

There probably won’t be much interest in Bochum assets at the start of the season, and for a good reason, given their tough opening fixtures. They face Mainz, Hoffenheim, Bayern and Freiburg in the first four Gameweeks, all teams that finished in the top 10. There is a positive, however, as they face Werder Bremen and Schalke in back-to-back games on matchday 5-6. That being said, Bochum will be a team to wait and watch after losing star players Bella Kotchap, Polter and Löwen this summer.

Honorable Mentions

FC Augsburg

Like Bochum, Augsburg face teams that finished in the top 10 in the first four gameweeks before their fixtures turn, and then they face Hertha and Werder Bremen on MD5 and MD6, which seems like the right time to invest in a player such as Iago possibly. Bayern Munich is the last team they face before the international break, so that is another thing to consider.

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Trevor Baretto

The creator of the website.