For the purposes of this article, all prices and points are via our partners Mondogoal.
The MLS kicks off once again on Wednesday of this week with a pair of games: Chicago vs NYRB and Colorado vs Houston. It's an interesting mix of teams for a two-game set, so expect to see more of a mix of budget players than normal. In fact, it may be difficult to even spend all $100,000,000 of your allotted funds when building your squad. We've said it before, limited rosters can be difficult in the fact that a single differential player makes all the difference between winning and losing, so we'll try to flush out some of those players that wouldn't normally get a lot of press.
-- Here's what we're looking at for fantasy MLS tips for this week --
Clean Sheet Potential
The bookies are giving the edge to Colorado as being the odds on favorite to not only win the match, but have a pretty decent chance at keeping the GA to a minimum. NYRB are the slight favorites on the road, but neither Colorado nor NYRB are heavily favored to keep the clean sheet all the way through.
#1) GOALKEEPER AND DEFENDER TIPS
There are really just two choices for this round worth considering. First would be
Clint Irwin ($6.2), and the second would be
Luis Robles, also $6.2. Like I said above, Colorado are being given the nod to get the clean sheet this week, but Robles and the NYRB are coming off of two straight clean sheets themselves. And you have to figure in the fact that Chicago, who play NY, were just shutout at home. So it's a coin toss either way as far as finding the preferred keeper in this situation, but either are good picks.
Really, as far as stats go, there isn't much to tell these two apart from each other. Irwin has eight clean sheets on the year, Robles has seven. Both men have conceded 25 goals. But Irwin has saved eight more shots than Robles -- but Robles still has a game in hand. I will say that for the purposes of freeing up more attacking positions, I'd lean towards Irwin on this match. Colorado have such a stagnant offense that you probably wouldn't use up four roster spots from their team. But NYRB are thought to be the offensive juggernaut coming into this game, so it would be more prudent to allow yourself the opportunity to field four position players from NYRB instead of using Robles and limiting yourself to only three.
For defenders, the highest price on the board belongs to
DeMarcus Beasley ($9.1). I would tend to want to pass over the Houston defender for this price though. Beasley had a great game at home a couple of weeks back, but his average score in his last five road fixtures has been a dismal 4.7 points, so the predicted output just doesn't match the price in my thinking.
Sticking with the theme of NYRB or Colorado though, there are a couple of decent picks for less money.
Matt Miazga ($7.6) and
Sean St. Ledger ($7.6) are both decent options going into Wednesday night. Miazga is averaging 7.61 points per game over his last five, and St. Ledger is averaging 5.23 points per game over the same stretch. It should be noted that St. Ledger's scores have risen over the past two weeks since he was pushed out of Orlando and picked up by Colorado. St. Ledger has a lot of upside if you believe in a player trying to "prove something".
Attacking Potential
The bookies are tipping NYRB as having the highest scoring potential this week. Colorado are expected to win, but in true Colorado fashion, it's expected that Colorado will only win by the slimmest of margins. In all truth though, there could be goals from any side this round -- if last week's San Jose match showed us anything, it's that any team can score against all odds. But when looking at Houston and Chicago this week, know that excluding their attackers for a similar player from NYRB or Colorado is really playing the best odds.
#2) MIDFIELDER TIPS
The highest priced midfielder on the board this round goes to
Sacha Kljestan ($10.7). And for his price, he's a relative bargain. Over his last five games, he's thrice gone into double digit points and has 5 SOT and 2 G during that stretch. Given that you'll be hard pressed to field out a truly expensive roster this round, there's no reason that he shouldn't be on your team this week.
Also interesting to note, when you exclude
Shaun Maloney ($10.3), a player who was benched because of an impending transfer in his last game, you see that four of the top five priced midfielders available this round come from NYRB.
Dax McCarty ($9.5), Lloyd Sam ($9.0) and
Felipe ($8.6) are all decent picks given this fixture. And when you start to see how beneficial it could be to have two or three of these guys on your squad, the prospect of picking Luis Robles over Clint Irwin becomes a bit less attractive.
Brad Davis ($7.9) is actually very decently priced for Houston. A player of his caliber is typically a bit overpriced in the season-long fantasy game, but for a player below $8, you could do worse. Also, keep an eye on
Ricardo Clark ($7.6). The Houston player was held out his last match with injury, but he's currently listed as probable on the MLS Injury Report. Clark leads all midfielders this round with 16 shots on target for the year. So he can be a surprise addition to your team to give you a boost in points.
#3) FORWARD TIPS
Bradley Wright-Phillips ($12.3) is the obvious choice here, isn't he? The sad fact is that most teams will probably have him front and center, so unless you're willing to gamble on the fact that he's held in check, you're going to need him on your team to keep pace with the competition. This is especially true when he's really the only player on the board that will cost you any real money, so his affordability just drives up his owned-by percentage. Play it safe and put him on your team.
David Accam is coming in at $9.6, but he's a frustrating player to watch for fantasy production. He's obviously skilled, and he's so much faster than nearly any other player on the pitch. But his finishing is really lacking, and his stats reflect that. But in a limited field such as this, it's like playing Russian Roulette. Everybody who watches him gets that same feeling that he's going to 'put it all together' any day now. And when he does start to link up those final balls in the box, he really could explode for serious point. Personally, I'm going to stick to my guns and say that Robles is in better form and NY are able to minimize him.
Will Bruin ($6.7) for Houston is a bit of 50/50 play for me too. Bruin knows what his job is, and in that sense he's always dangerous. But over his last five matches, Bruin has been subbed off each game prior to making 80 minutes. And the reason is that
Erick Torres ($5.2) was brought in to be the main man in Houston. Nobody is really sure when Torres will get the starting job, but playing either of these forwards has its risks involved because Houston are playing a platoon forward position right now.
#4) Formation Tips
This may be a week to try to play a 4-4-2 or a 3-5-2. In the forward position, outside of BWP, you'll start to run into a lot of uncertainty. And when you look at the total roster of players available to you this week, the midfielders really have the edge on all other positions for diversity and level of talent available to you.
There you have it guys. Good luck out there this week. I'll be playing in one of the $PP events. Hope to see you there.
