Just to recap on GK strategy.

There are 2 schools of thought here. The first is to go wth an elite keeper and either a cheap playing reserve or even gamble on a cheaper non playing reserve. The second is to rotate home and away with the 2 cheapest playing keepers.

This year the gap between the 2 has lessened with their being value in GKs at the elite level. Additionally, the increased rotation of the elite club defenders means a GK is a way of getting coverage without the juicy easy home games seeing mass defensive rotation. Rotation of GKs in fantasy premier league games doesn’t happen that regularly and it’s mainly focused on the domestic cups.

AS far as defenders are concerned, generally in fantasy premier league, I start off in a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 formation starting with 3 defensive players.  I think you should go for at least 1 elite defensive player and then the remaining  4 could either be home and away cheap rotations or another elite player and rotate the other 3.  I think 3 elite players, unless they are great value, aren’t worth the sacrifices that you will have to make to the rest of your fantasy premier league team.  Generally, I don’t believe in paying premiums for attacking potential, its just too unpredictable season to season.

I’ve provided the following stats to support the player choices and to guide you in your decisions just for defenders.  Until we get about 5 games in Ive kept last seasons  stats as a bench mark

1.  Clean sheets last year for the club rather than the player in order to assess the teams defensive strength at least last year.

2.  Time per point scored last year.  This is how many minutes it takes for a Barclays fantasy premier league point to be scored over the course of last season.  The lower the better obviously

3.  Rotation risk.  High, medium or low.  High is the greatest risk of rotation.

4.  Fixture ease ranking:  The link is at the bottom of the article but essentially I’ve ranked all the teams by the ease of the next 6 fixtures.  The team with the best ranking ie 1 will have the easiest next fixtures of any of the fantasy premier league teams over the next 6 games.

Elite Team GKs

Mignolet (£5.5m) BUY

No brainer for me.  Add in a non playing GK and for £9.5m last year there were 16 clean sheets for Liverpool which is pretty good going considering this year the cheapest rotation pair will be £9.0m for 2  keepers of teams for far less quality.  Mignolet has no serious competition and apart from any injury should play every fantasy premier league game.

Mannone (£4.5m)  SELL

Surprisingly didn’t start, Westwood did.  Would go for another team as pairing with Newcastle looks like a poor option

Elite team defenders

Clichy (£6.0m) HOLD

• City clean sheets last year 18.  Time per point scored last year:  21 mins .  Rotation risk: Medium.   fixture ease ranking: 5th

Very convincing defensive performance against an awful Newcastle team. The loss of Kompany and potentially Nastasic for this weekend means the defence wont be as strong and at £6.0m its a step too far for me.  However if you have them I would stick with it.  The fixtures are just too good.

Cole (£6.5m)SELL

• Chelsea clean sheets last year 14.  Time per point scored last year:  23 mins .  Rotation risk: Low.   fixture ease ranking: 20th

Utd away and then a blank in GW3 plus the worst fixtures of any team means its time to sell and go elsewhere for me.  If you have Ivanovic you may take theview that the attacking returns make him a long term hold but not for me.  I focus on clean sheets and everything else is a bonus.

Koscielny(£5.5m) HOLD

• Arsenal clean sheets last year 14.  Time per point scored last year:  19 mins .  Rotation risk: Medium.   fixture ease ranking: 9th

Suspended for 1 week after a disastrous opening fixture and then got an pretty nasty face cut last night but apparently will be fit for GW3.  Personally I still have faith in the 14 clean sheet Arsenal defence of last year and wouldn’t rush to sell with a good set of fixtures coming up.  Arteta is a screening midfielder loss but I don’t think it has been crucial to the clean sheets

Dawson (£5.0m) BUY

• Spurs clean sheets last year 9.  Time per point scored last year:  28 mins .  Rotation risk: Medium.   fixture ease ranking: 6

A pretty solid looking defence against an admittedly poor Palace.  Held his place over Kaboul.  I’m backing Spurs to get many more clean sheets in fantasy premier league this year

K Toure (£5.0m) BUY

• Liverpool clean sheets last year 16.  Time per point scored last year:  n/a .  Rotation risk: Medium.   fixture ease ranking: 3

Great value for a Liverpool player.   Started over Skrtel.  I’m not sure I would double up with Mignolet as the defence wasn’t totally convincing

Coleman (£5.0m)HOLD

• Everton clean sheets last year 11.  Time per point scored last year:  n/a as fpl mid .  Rotation risk: low.   fixture ease ranking: 13

A goal and assist last week and now a massive defensive bandwagon.  I think Toure and Dawson will get more clean sheets but the Everton defensive stats were pretty good despite the 2 goals.  £2.4m cheaper than Baines but an excellent attacking force  without pens and freekicks.  Just a warning though only 5 assists last year and no goals in the last 2 seasons.  Definitely wouldn’t sell but would like to see a few more games to see how they defend before jumping in.

Budget defenders

Collins (£4.5m) BUY

• West Ham clean sheets last year 11.  Time per point scored last year:  28 mins .  Rotation risk: medium.   fixture ease ranking: 7

Started against Cardiff and good defensive performance.  Good £4.5m buy with good fixtures and a very defensive manager

M Turner (£4.5m)HOLD

• Norwich clean sheets last year 10.  Time per point scored last year:  26 mins .  Rotation risk: medium.   fixture ease ranking: 11

Quite poor defensive performance this week.  I wouldn’t panic as 8 clean sheets at home last year but I wouldn’t be jumping in either.  Bassong coming back in my mind will replace Whittaker as Martin was a RB last year not a CB but not guaranteed

Clyne (£4.5m)BUY

• Southampton clean sheets last year 7.  Time per point scored last year:  34 mins .  Rotation risk: low.   fixture ease ranking: 11

Didn’t make it last week.  Expected to start this week though.  Shaw’s already risen in price but to me last year Clyne had the better attacking stats.   Great clean sheet last week and I’m backing them for massive improvement this year.

Chester (£4.0m) HOLD   Ward (£4.0m) SELL and B Turner £4.0m)HOLD  Baker HOLD Whittaker HOLD

With Chester and B Turner starting I would sell Ward although I’m sure you’ve got better things to do with your transfers than switch around £4.0m defenders.  As for Whittaker I think he will lose his place to R Martin when Bassong returns which could be this week.  Sell if it happens.

That’s it on to Mids and forwards next