fantasy premier league best cheap Defenders and Goalkeepers for GW1 – “ones to watch”

Here’s our first post outlining the fantasy premier league best cheap defenders defenders and goalkeepers for gameweek 1.  By cheap I mean £4.5m or less.  In my view anyone at £5.0m or more should be able to play home and away so I’ve treated £4.5m differently looking at them as combinations as opposed to players who should play home and away.

 fantasy premier league best cheap Defenders and Goalkeepers for GW1 – “ones to watch”

Background

As I said above the reason I’ve analysed the £4.5m and below defenders seperately in that, as I said above, defenders of £5.0m or above should be able to stand alone and play home and away.  They should be good enough to not play in rotation or combinations.  Some may think that line is £5.5m but to me thats too high.  So I’ve seperated these budget players out and analysed them differently.  Most FPL managers will play 3-4-3 and either play 1 premium defender and then rotate home and away 2 pairs of cheap defenders or play 2 premium defenders and then rotate 3 cheap defenders.  Very few people will rotate 5 cheapies these days.  Interestingly the ratio of home clean sheets was pretty much 3 home clean sheets to 2 away clean sheets last season so there’s an advantage clean sheet wise playing at home.  Interestingly though 6 teams either got more or the same clean sheets away as they did at home.  They include a reasonable proportion of the teams mentioned below.  The 6 teams are:  Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Liverpool, Sunderland, Swansea and WBA.  They show that the home rotation wont always be the best one especially with these teams.

We are therefore going to analyse and rank the teams seperately in the table below either putting a best pick forward as a defender or a GK.  We will then give some narrative on the player and give the home games they will play as well as suggest a 2 way home and away rotation with another team.

The table has a key below.  Then we talk about the players and then add a few gambles at the end.

At the moment it’s worth saying that there are no £4.0m GKs or defenders looking likely to play.  That could change as Steven Taylor of Newcastle, R Bennett of Norwich, Nathan Baker of Villa  and Turner of Norwich still have some hope.  Targett of Southampton should play a couple of games until Bertrand is fit.

Key:

Mins per FPL point: How many minutes it takes for a player to earn an FPL point last season.  The lower the better obviously

CS H/A:  Clean sheets home/away last season

John O’Shea

PVA and GK Pantilimon are definitely the best 2 defensive picks for Sunderland.  However both are £5.0m.  After that it’s difficult as there are 2 RBs and 4 CBs.  O’Shea is probably the safest of the 4.  However don’t expect lots of goals/assists but do expect yellow cards.  However Sunderland were excellent home and away defensively last season.  There is some question over the new manager who may play a more attacking brand of football though.

Here’s Sunderlands home games in the first 2 gameweeks:

Gameweek 2 Norwich (H)
Gameweek 3 Swansea (H)
Gameweek 5 Spurs (H)
Gameweek 8 West Ham (H)
Gameweek 10 Newcastle (H)
Gameweek 12 Southampton (H)

They rotate home and away with Newcastle perfectly due to geographical policing issues.

Here’s the first 6 games rrotation schedule for the 2 teams:

Sou (H), Nor (H), Swa (H), Avl (A), Tot (H), Wat (H)

Robert Huth

£4.5m Leicester GK Schmeichel is also an option.   With Wes Morgan unlikely to be ready for the start of the season CB Huth is the best option at £4.5m.  Leicester had a great defensive finish to the end of the season.  Again though there’s risk with a new manager.

Here’s the home games for the first 12 gameweeks:

Gameweek 1 Sunderland (H)
Gameweek 3 Spurs (H)
Gameweek 5 Aston Villa (H)
Gameweek 7 Arsenal (H)
Gameweek 10 Crystal Palace (H)
Gameweek 12 Watford (H)

Unfortunately there’s no natural home and away rotation partner so they maybe best as a 3 team rotation

Jack Butland

The Stoke GK has been told by manager Mark Hughes that he will be the number 1 GK.  It’s a good thing too as apart from Shawcross at £5.0m there appears little certainty over the defensive lineup.  On paper they look a good option for clean sheets although they were disappointing last season in that regard.

Here’s the home games for the first 12 gameweeks:

Gameweek 1 Liverpool (H)
Gameweek 4 West Brom (H)
Gameweek 6 Leicester (H)
Gameweek 7 Bournemouth (H)
Gameweek 10 Watford (H)
Gameweek 12 Chelsea (H)

They probably rotate home and away best with Norwich.  Here’s the first 6 gameweeks:

Cpl (H), Sun (A), Stk (H), WBA (H), Bou (H), Lei (H)

Sebastian Prödl

The 28 year old Watford CB has played 50 games for Austria and 176 games for Werder Bremen and is part of a virtually complete re-organisation of the defence.  They look a real chance of defensive solidity under the new manager.  He also scored 3 goals and an assist last year in 22 games so seems no mug in the opposition area.

Here’s their home games for the first 12 gameweeks:

Gameweek 2 West Brom (H)
Gameweek 3 Southampton (H)
Gameweek 5 Swansea (H)
Gameweek 7 Crystal Palace (H)
Gameweek 9 Arsenal (H)
Gameweek 11 West Ham (H)

Bournemouth seem their best home and away rotation partner.  Here’s the first 6 gameweeks:

Avl (H), WBA (H), Sou (H), Lei (H), Swa (H), Sun (H)

Simon Francis

The Bournemouth RB was the best of the attacking defensive players last season and is the natural pick from them this year.  Bournemouth also had the best defensive record of the 3 promoted teams of last year

Here’s their home games for the first 12 gameweeks:

Gameweek 1 Aston Villa (H)
Gameweek 4 Leicester (H)
Gameweek 6 Sunderland (H)
Gameweek 8 Watford (H)
Gameweek 10 Spurs (H)
Gameweek 12 Newcastle (H)

Watford seem their best home and away rotation partner.  Here’s the first 6 gameweeks:

Avl (H), WBA (H), Sou (H), Lei (H), Swa (H), Sun (H)

Tim Krul

With Newcastle RB Janmaat £5.0m GK Krul becomes the best option for Newcastle.  Coloccini seems unlikely to be fit or playing for Alan Pardew at Crystal Palace.  The LB and other CB spot seems up for grabs.  Newcastle were a defensive disaster but should improve this season under new manager McLaren.

Here’s their home games in the first 12 gameweeks:

Gameweek 1 Southampton (H)
Gameweek 4 Arsenal (H)
Gameweek 6 Watford (H)
Gameweek 7 Chelsea (H)
Gameweek 9 Norwich (H)
Gameweek 11 Stoke (H)

They rotate home and away with Sunderland perfectly due to geographical policing issues.

Here’s the first 6 games rotation schedule for the 2 teams:

Sou (H), Nor (H), Swa (H), Avl (A), Tot (H), Wat (H)

Joel Ward

Crystal Palace CB Scott Dann is the best attacking option for Crystal Palace but is unfortunately £5.0m.  RB Ward is a good solid gametime pick and seems likely to benefit from the new bonus point system.  LB Souaré and GK Speroni are also options at £4.5m.  Alan Pardew made them into a far more attacking team last season and their defensive record was terrible.  He does seem to have the ability to evolve teams positively so thats what you’ll be hoping for with Palace.

Here’s their home games in the first 12 gameweeks:

Gameweek 2 Arsenal (H)
Gameweek 3 Aston Villa (H)
Gameweek 5 Man City (H)
Gameweek 8 West Brom (H)
Gameweek 9 West Ham (H)
Gameweek 11 Man Utd (H)

Stoke seem their best home and away rotation partner.  Here’s the first 6 gameweeks:

Nor (A), Ars (H), Avl (H), WBA (H), Mcy (H), Lei (H)

Brad Guzan

The Villa GK seems the only certainty in the back 5 at the moment.  A difficult team to have any defensive positivity about with manager Tim Sherwoods attacking philosphy and the loss of experienced CB Ron Vlaar.

Here’s their home games in the first 12 gameweeks:

Gameweek 2 Man Utd (H)
Gameweek 4 Sunderland (H)
Gameweek 6 West Brom (H)
Gameweek 8 Stoke (H)
Gameweek 10 Swansea (H)
Gameweek 12 Man City (H)

They rotate perfectly with WBA for geographical policing reasons.  However I’ll talk about WBA later but there is doubt whether a £4.5m defender/GK will have any longevity.  However they do rotate home and away with Norwich.  Here’s the first 6 gameweeks:

Cpl (H), Sun (A), Stk (H), Sun (H), Bou (H), WBA (H)

Russell Martin

Hard to have much faith in the Norwich defence after every other team seems to strengthen but there’s silence from Norwich.  The players do at least have experience though in the premier league and a reasonable defensive record from last season.  GK Ruddy is also an option.

Here’s their home games in the first 12 gameweeks:

Gameweek 1 Crystal Palace (H)
Gameweek 3 Stoke (H)
Gameweek 5 Bournemouth (H)
Gameweek 8 Leicester (H)
Gameweek 10 West Brom (H)
Gameweek 12 Swansea (H)

Stoke seem their best home and away rotation partner. Difficult to name a £4.5m defender with gametime security for Stoke at the moment though so Norwich GK Ruddy is the best bet for this rotation.   Here’s the first 6 gameweeks:

Cpl (H), Sun (A), Stk (H), WBA (H), Bou (H), Lei (H)

Some other issues worth discussing

WBA

Tony Pulis put on another defensive masterclass with WBA last season and that has seen a rise in price as a result. Lescott at £5.0m seems the best bet.  Olsson is a possibility to start for £4.5m but it’s not certain and he is also an injury doubt.  GK Myhill should start to October but at that stage £5.0m Foster should take over when back from injury.  This makes them a difficult team to get into your FPL lineup for £4.5m

Some gambles

Yoshida (Southampton)

The £4.5m CB should start for Southampton at CB unless there’s another bought.  That seems likely as Koeman has said he’s looking for 2 potentially which puts his place at risk if Koeman delivers

Joe Gomez (Liverpool)

The £4.5m LB has had a decent amount of gametime and praise from Rodgers in pre-season and with the other option Moreno being very accident prone could actually start.  Needs more monitoring in pre-season.

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