Fantasy Focus: I am Josef

Benny’s Army led this round with a score of 114 points, even despite the absence of suddenly-inactive David Villa:

Josef Martinez (ATL, $11.0) led the way with an armband-aided 36 points on the strength of a hat trick, and none of the four midfielders scored fewer than 8 points. MILLERtime When WYNNE’n is still the overall leader.

Positional Leaders

Goalkeepers

The pair of Evan Bush (MTL, $5.4) and Nick Rimando (RSL, $6.0) led with 10 points, each of them earning a clean sheet. Just behind them was the clean sheet trio of Sean Johnson (NYC, $7.0), Andre Blake (PHI, $7.0), and Zack Steffen (CLB, $7.0), each of them scoring 9 points. DCU’s David Ousted ($4.4) scored just 1 point.

Defenders

Victor Cabrera (MTL, $6.2) led all defenders with 13 points on the strength of a clean sheet. Behind him were five defenders from two teams, each scoring 11 points with the help of a clean sheet: Reto Zeigler ($5.8), Anton Nedyalkov ($6.0) and Matt Hedges ($5.8), all from Dallas, and the Columbus Crew pairing of Lalas Abubakar ($6.0) and Jonathan Mensah ($7.0). For D.C., Frederic Brillant ($5.6) led with 5 points, followed by Nick DeLeon ($5.4) with 4, and Joseph Mora ($4.9) with 2.

Midfielders

Roland Lamah (DAL, $8.0) combined two goals with an assist to lead the midfielders with 17 points. Maximiliano Moralez (NYC, $10.5) duplicated that feat for 12 points, while Ignacio Piatti (MTL, $11.2) had an assist and 10 points. Luciano Acosta ($7.9 led the United midfield with 8 points; followed by Yamil Asad ($8.2) with 5; Paul Arriola ($6.7) with 4; the trio of Zoltan Stieber ($7.1), Junior Moreno ($6.6), and Ulises Segura ($6.9) with 3; and Chris Durkin ($4.0) with 2.

Forwards

Josef Martinez’s 18 points led all forwards and all players. Behind him were the Houston pair of Alberth Elis ($10.5), who had a goal and an assist on the way to 12 points, and Mauro Manotas ($8.6), who scored a goal and 9 points. United’s forwards were led by Darren Mattocks ($7.7) with 7 points, and Patrick Mullins ($6.0) with 1.

Looking Ahead

Most of the league is on bye due to an international break, as there are just five matches happening this round. I like Jimmy Maurer (DAL, $5.0) as a budget goalkeeper play at home against Portland, especially considering that the third through eigth-ranked scorers are on bye, and the top two (Sean Johnson, Zack Steffen) cost $7.0. In defense, keep rolling with Ben Sweat (NYC, $8.0) and his 8 ponts per game average, and go with Felipe Gutierrez (SKC, $9.2), and his three goals over the last two rounds, in the midfield at Colorado. At forward, is Darren Mattocks going to score his third goal in as many games? I’m willing to find out.