Player Positional Rankings: MLS Fantasy Round 24

With the MLS secondary transfer window in full swing, we find ourselves rounding third base and barreling down the home stretch of the 2025 MLS Fantasy season. Yes I’m aware that’s a ridiculous amount of baseball metaphors for a soccer article, but I’m serious, and serious people use a lot of baseball metaphors. It’s time to start swinging for the fences, people!

It’s late in the season and I’m starting to sound like a broken record with all the defender shaming, so instead of painting another bleak yet devastatingly clever word picture depicting inevitable Armageddon on your backline, I’m just going to focus on the mountain of favorable attacking matchups we get to enjoy this week.

DEFENDERS

Okay, I lied, but I’ll make it quick. It’s another week of sub-40% clean sheet probabilities, so you know the drill: we’re picking attacking fullbacks, wingbacks and out-of-position defenders, of which only about four or five are fit and reasonably viable. I ranked only three center backs this week: Malanda because Luna is suspended, Blackmon on a hunch, and McVey as a sleeper. Oh, and Orellano may or may not be injured, and Glesnes, Duncan and Ocampo are suspended. That about covers it.

ATTACKERS

That mountain of favorable attacking matchups I mentioned is more about the number of forwards I like than midfielders, but I’ll talk about midfielders first. Ojeda, Gil and Dreyer are pretty much essential going forward. Rotation aside, if you’re fading one or more of those three guys at this point, you’d better be replacing them with guys just as likely to post double-digit scores. My advice is to find your differentials elsewhere, and to shelve any homerism or clever narratives you may be entertaining.

Speaking of which, I’m not totally sold on the whole “Evander will feast in Portland” narrative. On one hand, it’s a venue, fanbase, and more importantly, a team that he knows intimately, which means he should be able to channel that deep knowledge and exploit weaknesses in the Timbers’ backline. On the other hand, he’s been underperforming lately, especially on the road, and that’s cause for concern. But is it enough of a concern to fade him, and how much of that underperformance is down to Denkey’s absence? If you figure that out, please let me know. As for most of the other ranked midfielders, they are probably interchangeable. Glesnes is suspended, which is why Forsberg is ranked, but he’s been shockingly inconsistent as a fantasy asset this season.

Okay, so I probably over-indexed on forwards this round, but I really couldn’t help it. Turns out I ranked 16 of them. You get the usual ranking of ten, plus a one-time, exclusive mega-bonus of SIX sleeper picks! I know, I’m awesome, thank me later. Really, this is just my way of admitting that apart from Messi (if he’s fit) and Muriel (if he starts), I don’t have a clue which one of these guys will outscore the others because they all have decent matchups. I can see every one of them scoring at least one goal, so you could reasonably pick any three at random and probably call it good.

• Teams on a DGW: None
• Teams on a BYE: None

Start playing MLS Fantasy today

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Note: (?) means the player might not start due to injury, lack of fitness, availability status or loss of starting spot. (OOP) means the player is expected to play out of position. (+) means the player is ranked only if they become available for selection before their match locks.

GOALKEEPERS

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Kristijan Kahlina	CLT	vs RSL	$7.80m
2. Yohei Takaoka	VAN	vs HOU	$10.10m
3. Pedro Gallese	ORL	vs SKC	$7.30m

Sleeper Goalkeepers

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Michael Collodi	DAL	@ ATX	$5.90m
2. CJ Dos Santos	SDFC	@ SJE	$7.90m

DEFENDERS

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Alex Freeman	ORL	vs SKC	$9.60m
2. Dante Sealy	MTL	vs DCU	$7.80m
3. Adilson Malanda	CLT	vs RSL	$8.90m
4. Tristan Blackmon	VAN	vs HOU	$10.20m
5. Kai Wagner	PHI	@ NYRB	$12.10m
6. Luca Orellano (?)	CIN	@ POR	$10.90m
7. Anthony Markanich	MIN	vs SEA	$8.20m
8. Ryan Hollingshead	LAFC	@ NER	$7.80m
9. Guilherme Biro	ATX	vs DAL	$8.50m
10. Andy Najar	NSH	@ NYC	$10.10m

Sleeper Defenders

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Christopher McVey	SDFC	@ SJE	$9.60m
2. Andrew Gutman	CHI	vs STL	$7.50m

MIDFIELDERS

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Martin Ojeda	ORL	vs SKC	$15.90m
2. Carles Gil	NER	vs LAFC	$15.30m
3. Anders Dreyer	SDFC	@ SJE	$15.60m
4. Philip Zinckernagel	CHI	vs STL	$14.40m
5. Evander	CIN	@ POR	$15.50m
6. Emil Forsberg	NYRB	vs PHI	$11.70m
7. Hany Mukhtar	NSH	@ NYC	$15.20m
8. Marco Pašalić	ORL	vs SKC	$11.60m
9. Djordje Mihailovic	TOR	vs CLB	$13.40m
10. Cristian Espinoza	SJE	vs SDFC	$11.30m

Sleeper Midfielders

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Jack McGlynn	HOU	@ VAN	$12.80m
2. Eduard Loewen	STL	@ CHI	$9.00m
3. Sebastian Berhalter	VAN	vs HOU	$11.20m
4. Joseph Paintsil	LAG	@ MIA	$8.60m

FORWARDS

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1a. Lionel Messi (?)	MIA	vs LAG	$15.30m
1b. Luis Muriel (?)	ORL	vs SKC	$9.50m
2. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting	NYRB	vs PHI	$11.10m
3. Prince Owusu	MTL	vs DCU	$10.20m
4. Brian White	VAN	vs HOU	$10.10m
5. Denis Bouanga	LAFC	@ NER	$14.00m
6. Alonso Martinez	NYC	vs NSH	$11.30m
7. Tanitoluwa Oluwaseyi (?)	MIN	vs SEA	$11.30m
8. Luis Suarez	MIA	vs LAG	$10.90m
9. Cristian Arango	SJE	vs SDFC	$13.10m
10. Rafael Navarro	COL	vs ATL	$10.40m

Sleeper Forwards

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Wilfried Zaha	CLT	vs RSL	$11.80m
2. Diego Rossi	CLB	@ TOR	$13.10m
3. Petar Musa	DAL	@ ATX	$11.70m
4. Sam Surridge	NSH	@ NYC	$13.00m
5. Chucky Lozano	SDFC	@ SJE	$11.80m
6. Danny Musovski	SEA	@ MIN	$8.70m

CAPTAIN

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1a. Lionel Messi (?)	MIA	vs LAG	$15.30m
1b. Martin Ojeda	ORL	vs SKC	$15.90m
2. Carles Gil	NER	vs LAFC	$15.30m
3. Anders Dreyer	SDFC	@ SJE	$15.60m