Fantasy Soccer Advice

MLS Fantasy: Ranking the top 20 forwards for the 2019 season

The forward position is one that can really make or break a MLS Fantasy team any given week. Making the right moves to fit the heavy artillery into your lineup could pay big dividends, while missing out on a Josef Martinez or Zlatan Ibrahimovic hat trick could see your squad plummet in the standings.


Start playing!


Hop on newcomers?


The new season marks the end of an era for fantasy monsters like David Villa and Sebastian Giovinco, but we have some shiny new toys to play with in the form of Alexandru Mitrita and Cristian Espinoza. Itā€™s yet to be seen how quickly the newcomers will adapt to a new environment, which means for fantasy purposes sometimes itā€™s best to take a wait-and-see approach before loading up.


Josef or Vela?


Josef Martinez led all forwards with 31 goals and 266 fantasy points in 2018 and heā€™s predictably high on the radar once again, albeit with a new provider in Pity Martinez. While Josef led the way in total fantasy points, Carlos Vela boasted the best average of all forwards with 8.68 fantasy points per game (compared to 7.82 FPPG for Martinez). Velaā€™s ability to rack up fantasy points across multiple categories plants him slightly ahead of the more goal-dependent Martinez in my 2019 preseason fantasy rankings.

Rank
Player
Team
Price
1 
Carlos Vela
LAFC
$11.0
2 
Josef Martinez
ATL
$11.0
3
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
LA
$11.0
4 
Wayne Rooney
DC
$11.0
5 
Alexandru Mitrita
NYC
$10.0
6
Darwin Quintero
MIN
$11.0
7
Bradley Wright-Phillips
RBNY
$10.5
8
Raul Ruidiaz
SEA
$10.5
9
Cristian Penilla
NE
$9.5
10
Maxi Urruti
MTL
$9.5
11
Fredy Montero
VAN
$9.0
12
Mauro Manotas
HOU
$9.5
13
Gyasi Zardes
CLB
$9.5
14
Cristian Espinoza
SJ
$8.5
15
Alberth Elis
HOU
$9.5
16
Diego Rossi
LAFC
$9.5
17
Kei Kamara
COL
$9.5
18
Dom Dwyer
ORL
$9.0
19
Nemanja Nikolic
CHI
$9.0
20
Fanendo Adi
CIN
$9.0

If youā€™re interested in getting all the details about the changes to the 2019 fantasy game, or if this is your first year playing, check out the video above from the Fantasy United FC crew or you can listen to the first preseason episode of the MLS Fantasy Insider Podcast.