How much money are you devoting to your Starting XI?
Let’s talk about your bench.
In MLS Fantasy Soccer, only 11 players will take the field in any one round. However, the other seven players on your roster will make a big difference in your fantasy season. Interested in taking advantage of the auto-sub feature? You’ll need someone on the bench who plays that week. Need cover for the inevitable bye weeks (four teams are off in both Round 2 and Round 3)? You’ll need to have a couple guys ready to step into the starting lineup.
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Bench construction has been one of the hottest topics early in the fantasy season. With the player prices set as they are and that $120m cap looming ominously, can you actually afford to invest in roster spots 12-18? And after reading this great article from Travis Luscombe, how will the new scoring system affect your strategy no matter what you decide?
There are two basic trains of thought:
Spread The Cash Around: People who ascribe to this first theory are going to stay away from flashy, top-heavy rosters. With the money they save by eschewing the Clint Dempseys of the world, they’ll be free to invest in at least one quality backup in each position group. This will give them more gameday flexibility and allow them to skate through bye weeks with relative ease, freeing them to use their transfers to maximize impact rather than plugging holes.
Your other option—the better option, in my opinion—is to put it all out on the table in Round 1.
Play It Thin To Win: Like betting your entire stack on the first hand of blackjack, you can (quite literally) go for broke. Why choose between Robbie Keane, Obafemi Martins, and Kaka when you can have all three? That’s what Vin Diesel would do. That’s what Simon Borg will do.* And that’s what you should do.
*Statement has not been verified with Simon Borg
As you might have guessed, I’m taking the latter approach. Over the first month of the season, the fantasy bargains will begin to emerge – $5m defenders playing every week, $6m midfielders racking up the bonus points, and $7m forwards getting major tick in powerful offenses. It will be pretty easy to identify them and managers will start adding those players en masse.
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It’s tempting to try to beat the crowd and guess who they’re going to be right now. However, there’s just so much risk in trying to divine these players by combing over preseason box scores, especially when poor performances could actually see those players' prices go down.
Paradoxically, I think it’s actually a lower-risk proposition to wait a few weeks to add value players. If you see a few $5m defenders rising in price, then maybe sacrifice a top-level player and use that money to add a couple. You might have to spend an additional $0.3m or $0.4m to add them, but hopefully your big-gun players will have also appreciated during that time as well to make up some of the difference.
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Bottom line: I’m choosing to put out my strongest XI Week 1, which means I’m spending a total of $30m on my seven bench players and throwing an Abramovich-esque $90m at a dream-team starting XI.
Is it going to pay off in the long run? We’ll see how it goes. Nothing wagered; nothing gained.
That’s my hot take. What yours? Let us know in the comments below.
