2023 Fantasy NWSL: Answers from Round 18

Good news… the technical difficulties have been resolved, the Challenge Cup is complete, and we are back this week! There are only four rounds remaining in the FNWSL season, with Round 19 kicking off in Louisville on Friday night.

Remember that next weekend is an international break, but we expect most international players to be available for league games this week. However, popular FNWSL picks Sophia Smith and Kristie Mewis are likely to miss Round 19 with injuries.

Speaking of injuries and international breaks, let’s talk about one of the cornerstones of FNWSL this week: availability. If you don’t play, you won’t get any points! With only four rounds remaining in the season, you want to make sure you make the most of every free transfer you have remaining, and one way to do this is by keeping tabs on which players are going to be on the field.

Which teams are playing the most consistent lineups?

Seven players have played every minute of the NWSL season so far, and additional seven have played enough minutes in each match to receive the maximum available Minutes Played (MP) points (36). Consistent minutes are especially important for defenders (and keepers), as clean sheet points are much more playing-time dependent than goals or assists. Here is the list of players that have maxed out on MP points, with players that have played every minute starred:

When looking at the list, two teams stand out: Louisville and Orlando. The Racing back line has been extremely consistent all year, as Katie Lund, Abby Erceg, and Lauren Milliet each having played all 1620 minutes of the season. Similarly, the Pride DF trio of Emily Madril, Kylie Strom, and Haley McCutcheon (who excelled during the WWC break) have all recorded 36 MP points and have only been off the field for a collective total of 42 minutes. Lund and Erceg each cost $300k, while all four of the others cost $200k or less. If you’re looking for some differential or low-cost options on defense, remember that Racing has only allowed 18 goals all year (second only to Houston), while Orlando is third in xGA with 23.3.

For individual players, this list also reinforces the high value of Sam Coffey and Morgan Weaver (especially considering Sophia Smith’s injury), and the consistency of production from Tara McKeown and Sam Staab in DC.

Which players have accumulated the most yellow cards?

If you (like me) were not prepared for Savannah DeMelo’s one game suspension last week (emotionally or fantasy-wise), I’m here to help! Remember that, if a player a total of five yellow cards in league play over the course of the entire season, they are suspended for the next match. With the stretch run approaching in FNWSL, you want to make sure you make the most of every free transfer you have remaining, and hopefully avoid needing to make any single-week changes based on a suspension.

With that in mind, here is the list of the players that have been booked four or more times this season. DeMelo and Ryan have already served their suspensions, and Cooper is likely to serve it this week (though we haven’t received official availability reports yet). All other players on the list have only been shown a yellow four times, but would be required to miss a game if they get another:

Who are you starting this week? Comment or tweet @MansersAnswers!