Fantasy Focus: Thank you, sir. May I have another?

This week was pretty bad all over, but now is the winter of our discontent. Nine teams are on bye next week, and forming your starting lineup will basically be finding eleven guys who are starting anywhere. But first we look at this weeks peak performers. C.A. Machete led the league with 85 points. Javier Morales (RSL, $8.6M) and Jack McInerney (PHI, $9.3) scored 14 points, but McInerney needed the captain's armband to do it. Federico Higuain (CLB, $9.4M) added 10 points. SGV Galaxy is still our leader, but only by 2 points now.

Positional Leaders

Goalkeepers

Two keepers tied for first in points at that position with 9 -- Bobby Shuttleworth (NE, $5.1M) and Nick Rimando (RSL, $6.2M). Seattle's Michael Gspurning ($5.7M) rounded out the top scorers. DCU's Joe Willis ($4.9M) scored 2 points.

Defenders

Five players tied for the positional lead with 9 points -- Chicago's Austin Berry ($5.0M) and Bakary Soumare ($4.7M), New England's Jose Goncalves ($6.3M) and Andrew Farrell ($5.3M), and Seattle's Djimi Traore ($5.9M). For United, Daniel Woolard ($3.9M) led with 4 points, while Conor Shanosky ($3.9M) and Chris Korb ($4.2M) scored 3, and James Riley ($4.5M) scored 2.

Midfielders

Morales' 14 points led all midfielders. Kelyn Rowe (NE, $5.7M) followed closely behind with 12 points. Chicago's Patrick Nyarko ($8.8M) closed out the high scorers with 9 points. D.C.'s seven collective midfielders scored just one more point than Morales this week. Chris Pontius ($8.1M) did something with 4 points. Perry Kitchen ($5.6M) and Kyle Porter ($5.1M) tallied 3 points, while John Thorrington ($5.3M) returned with 2 points (he played 33 minutes and registered 7 recoveries), and Nick DeLeon ($7.4M), Dwayne De Rosario ($9.3M), and Sainey Nyassi ($5.6M) all showed up with 1 point.

Forwards

New England's Diego Fagundez ($6.1M) scored and registered 2 assists en route to 15 points and the positional and overall points lead this week. Atiba Harris (COL, $7.5M) and Blas Perez (DAL, $9.0M) tied for 2nd with 12 points. United forward Carlos Ruiz ($7.8M) scored 2 points, and Rafael ($7.7M) showed up for 1.

Looking Ahead

With just ten teams playing, the key for me is finding one or two good matchups and exploiting them. New England had five players in sole possession of, or tied for first or second at their position this week (Shuttleworth, Goncalves, Farrell, Rowe, Fagundez,) and this week they're playing host to D.C. United. Translation: Play Revs guys. Shuttleworth and Goncalves are worth it on their own, as Shuttleworth is cheap and tied for 7th overall at his position, and Goncalves is 3rd at his. Farrell is 8th at his position, and he's scored 22 points in his last 3 matches. Fagundez is not as prolific, but he'd churned out 3 games of consecutive 7 point performances before his outburst this week. Rowe is a bit of a risk, but has potential. Other players to look at: Portland defenders (at CHI), Jack McInerney (duh), Dominic Oduro (at PHI), Seattle defenders and Lamar Neagle (vs. VAN).

Good luck. We'll probably need it.