Fantasy Strategy Clinic Round 27: Double Stacks and Triple Stacks

By: The Fantasy Physician

Round 27 Big Questions – When and Why Should You Take Two or Three Players from a Single MLS Team?

After last week’s gut health tune-up by the Fantasy Gastroenterologist, you may be ready to gorge yourself or you may be leerier than ever of dyspepsia from overindulgence.  Welcome to game week 27!

Each week you choose a new squad of 15 players from the 30 MLS teams.  Fantasy MLS rules allow you to take at most three players from any one MLS team.  So, when should you double or triple up?

Looking back at the Dream Teams from the first 26 game weeks in 2025, there was only a single week (week 19) in which the 11 players from the Dream Team – ie the best FMLS scores of the week – came from 11 distinct MLS teams.  In every other week, if you had a crystal ball, you would have doubled up at least once.

Double Stacks and Triple Stacks: When to Take Them?

Obviously, we consider taking multiple players from one MLS team when a team offers clear advantages in that game week, usually attributed to one of three situations:

1. Superior attacking or defensive matchups.
2. To collect on the FMLS points advantage a team’s players gain from playing two matches while most teams play only one.  The second condition – termed mini double game week (mini -DGW) – is met this round in which 8 teams play two matches – spread over two weekends, even more appealing because the DGW teams face no extra fatigue– while the other 22 teams play a single match on the second weekend. Of the five remaining game weeks this season, three are mini-DGW, so you may want to look back at our article on the topic.
3. When facing severely limited choices in specific situations.

This far into the season, you have had a lot of practice at assessing matchups.  Great matchups like great poker hands make us want to go “all in,” but consider matchups carefully and separately from both the angles of attacking and defending return potential for the advantaged team.

Teams with good matchups or two matches in a game week invite us to consider double stacks or triple stacks, but there must be good players on the field to make that worthwhile.   For most of this season, LAFC has had a credible attack and some good matchups, but until the recent arrival of Heung-Min Son, the only consistent attacking player in a single game week context was Denis Bouanga.  The arrival of Son creates new opportunities and new questions: if you like LAFC, should you take Son or Bouanga or both?

Many strong managers like to stack or pair defenders with a goalkeeper from the same team.  What makes a goalkeeper appealing – mostly the potential for 5-point clean sheet bonuses – makes defenders from the same team appealing.  Their scores often correlate.  As with financial investments, positive correlation may add to positive returns or worsen negative returns.  Risk and return increase together.  Diversifying defenders (analogous to investing in assets classes that do not correlate) may limit risk but also may limit upside.  Taking defenders with high bonus point potential or ones that earn occasional attacking returns may also limit defender risk.  In considering defender stacks, always assess whether the next defender you are adding erodes the quality of the strategy, if for example they add little in the way of bonus points or attacking return potential.  To a lesser extent, attackers from the same team may show correlated returns.  For example, you may own two attackers from the same team, and if one scores a goal and the other earns points for an assist, you will be a happy FMLS manager.  Attackers may see favorable return correlation because they are playing against the same bad defense.  That said, second and third attackers from the same team often lack features of the principle one, like having set-piece or penalty kick responsibility.   Every time you take a marginal attacker from one team, you may be doing so at the expense of not taking “The Guy” from another team.  In sum, stacking strategies often represent an opportunistic attempt to score positively correlated point returns but come with the risk of positively correlated bad results or missing out on better players from another team.  What’s true for double stacks is truer still for triple stacks.

Sometimes you take a double stack or triple stack because you end up in a situation where you have little choice. Say on a bad luck week your bench goalkeeper and field players fail you, and you decide to do a switcheroo with players on the field from late games.  What if there are only one or two very late games and only one seems to give favorable matchups?  Well, take players from the team with a good matchup.  Fortunately, a few of the West Coast teams have strong defenses – eg Vancouver, Seattle, LAFC, and San Diego – and often one or more is playing at home.  It’s wise to anticipate “bench failure” scenarios so that you feel ok with available options.  The narrowness of those options may leave you with a double stack or triple stack.

Teams with very strong attacks and pairs of strong attackers draw our attention when their team has a favorable matchup: Hany Mukhtar and Sam Surridge, Martin Ojeda and either Luis Muriel or Marco Pasalic, Denis Bouanga and Heung-Min Son, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, Anders Dreyer and Chucky Lozano.  In many cases, one of these players is the go-to and the other is added in favorable situations.  In other cases, the right player to take is not clear (eg for many of the games this season in which Minnesota started forwards Tani Oluwaseyi (now departed) and Kelvin Yeboah).  Sometimes we stack pairs like this to “capture” an expected good result.  In this case, putting one or both players on the bench is ideal because one can keep the good results and discard the bad one or keep both with good planning.

Throughout the season, we have emphasized using the bench to mitigate risk.  Double stacks and triple stacks increase risk, so always consider putting one or more of the players from the stack – typically the one with the lowest point floor – on your bench.

Stacking in Game Week 27

This week eight generally weaker teams are stronger FMLS choices because they have two games to play, and managers will consider players and stacks from any of these eight teams this week.  Some managers may take only DGW players.  The first weekend is part of an international break, so be sure to consult the MLS call-up list, the disciplinary lists for players on yellow card watch (ie who could miss the second game with suspension if they get a yellow card in the first).  Look at lineups to be sure that your double week players are likely to play two games.

Chicago Fire: With two home games and an overall strong attack, many managers will look to take two or three of the following attackers: Hugo Cuypers, Philip Zinckernagel, Jonathan Bamba, and Brian Gutierrez.  Zinckernagel should be a lock on most teams, and most will want at least two Chicago Fire attackers.   Goalkeeper Chris Brady and defender Andrew Gutman are other options, though overall I favor Chicago attack over defense.

St. Louis SC:  not a great team but a resurgent Eduard Loewen, Marcel Hartel, Joao Klauss are all choices and double stack not out of the question.

New England Revolution: Carles Gil should be on every manager’s squad and will be a popular choice for captain.  Leo Campana will miss the first game; avoid him.  Stackers could consider: Matt Turner in goal, defender Ilay Feingold, and midfielder Ignatius Ganago.

FC Dallas: Petar Musa at forward will be popular if healthy and starting the first game. Stackers might consider the Dallas goalkeeper Michael Collodi or defender Shaq Moore.

Austin FC: Owen Wolff and Osman Bukari are choices from an improving attack.  Myrto Uzuni will miss the first match on international duty, so don’t take him.   Playing both games on the road will diminish interest in Austin defense, though the overall quality of it will still entice some managers.

Los Angeles Galaxy: risky given that they have not won a road game yet this season and they play twice on the road, but Marco Reus and Gabriel Pec are meaningful choices and might appeal as a differential double stack.  Joseph Paintsil will miss the first game with international duty, increasing the centrality of Reus and Pec to the Galaxy attack.

Sporting Kansas City: Dejan Joveljic is a natural choice.  Double stackers could take forward Santiago Munoz or midfielder Daniel Salloi.

Late, single-match fallback options:

San Diego FC:  They play a single game at home this game week but are a good late fallback if bench players fail.  They play a tough Minnesota team, but since Minnesota hates possession and San Diego loves it, field players like Anders Dreyer and defenders like Manu Duah, Patrick McNair, and Luca Bombino may have solid floors from possession-related bonus points.  Look to San Diego for late switcheroo choices.

Portland Timbers: Like San Diego, they play New York Red Bulls in a late game in the second week.  They are the other fallback option.  Goalkeeper James Pantemis – he can save a penalty sometimes – and defenders like Kamal Miller or Finn Surman face a NYRB team that struggles on the road.

If you are stifling yawns from taking Evander, Hany, and Messi every week, this game week should spice things up. What’s spicier than hitting it big with a stack from a bottom to mid-table MLS team?

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The “Fantasy Physician” is Ron Birnbaum, @Half Century City on Discord
The “Fantasy Therapist” is Mike Leister, @Kenobi on  Discord
The “Fantasy Meteorologist” is Asher Malaschak, @Storminator on  Discord
The “Fantasy Gastroenterologist” is Christian Ward, @xward on Discord