Fantasy premier league best premium defenders – “ones to watch”

Fantasy Premier League, Player Rankings

Here’s our look at defenders and goalkeepers at £5.0 or above.  These are players that you would expect to play home and away.  You’ll probably play 1 or 2 of those and then rotate 3 or 4 other cheap defenders.   We’ll give you the defender we think is best in the best defensive teams by looking at a balance between price and attacking potential.  We’ll also give you some narrative and outline the other defensive options in those teams including the goalkeeper option.  We’ll also give you the first 6 fixtures.

Fantasy premier league best premium defenders – “ones to watch”

RankNamevalueMins Per FPL point  Goal/AsstsCS H/A Fixt Ease Team ownership
 1. Azpilicueta £6.0m 18.8 mins0/3 11/6 20/20 95%
 2. Koscielny £6.0m 19.1 mins 3/0 8/5 11/4 71%
 3. Darmian £5.5m 2/1 (Torino) 6/5 14/2 35%
 4. Clyne £5.5m 22.1 mins 2/2 6/8 3/10 62%
 5. Kompany £6.0m 30.8 mins 0/0 9/5 6/19 32%
 6. Lescott £5.0m 24.1 mins 1/2 8/8 13/12 14%
 7. Alderweireld £5.0m 25.7 mins 1/0 5/4 10/16 25%
 8. Baines £6.5m 19.9 mins 2/9 8/2 17/13 60%
 9. Cedric £5.0m 0/2 (SP L) 11/4 2/1 40%

Key:

Mins per FPL point:  How many minutes it takes to gain 1 FPL point.  The lower the better

C/S H/A:  Clean sheets home and away

Fixt ease:  The ease of fixtures for the next 6 (3) games.  It was meant from an attacking point of view but you can take a view from the fixtures below yourself

Team ownership:  I’ve added together the total % ownership for the entire def and GK at todays date

Azpilicueta

Chelsea are the best defensive team in the league for me bar none.  Last year they got more clean sheets and conceded less goals than any team.  They also only had Southampton coming anywhere near them on the underlying defensive stats.

The Chelsea LB Azpilicueta’s position is strengthened due to the sale of Luis and with as yet no replacement bought.  It’s also been speculated  that he will benefit greatly from the new FPL bonus point system.  The real choice is between Azpili and Ivanovic at £7.0m.  Ivanovic is the premium attacking option with 4 goals and 6 assists last season.  However on a minutes per FPL point he was behind Azpili on 19.1 mins and had 13 bonus points compared to Azpilis 19.

GK Courtois is relatively good value at £5.5m.  However it’s worth remembering that he was the 8th highest point scoring GK last season with the likes of Adrian scoring far higher.  On a point per game basis he was 11th.  The situation could easily be worse this season with saves counting for additional points

Here’s Chelsea first 6 fixtures:

Swansea (H)
Man City (A)
West Brom (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Everton (A)
Arsenal (H)

Koscielny

The Arsenal defence underperformed with 5 teams obtaining more clean sheets last season than Arsenals 13.  However the emergence of CDM Coquelin and the signing of Chelsea GK Cech should strengthen their defence and for that reason I’m ranking them 2nd.  There’s no question over CB Koscielny as the first choice in my mind.  All the other defenders are £5.5m and only Koscielny is nailed on with even Mertersacker vulnerable to rotation.

GK Cech is £5.5m and will suffer from the same issues as Courtois above

Here’s the first 6 fixtures:

West Ham (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Liverpool (H)
Newcastle (A)
Stoke (H)
Chelsea (A)

Darmian

Manchester United were disappointing defensively last season with only 11 clean sheets.  8 teams obtained more clean sheets.  Without De Geas heroics it could have been far worse.  However the defence has been strengthened with Darmain purchased and Shaw looking fit and in form.  Schneirderlin will also give more protection to the back 4.  If GK De Gea goes though that will be a major blow.

The new Manchester United RB Darmian has shown a real attacking purpose in pre-season and looks the best Man Utd option.  All the other defenders have gametime risk although you could also aim this at Darmian with Valencia.  Shaw is probably the next best option at the same price of £5.5m although he has Blind as a rotation risk as well as injury history.  De Gea at £5.5m is the most secure but could go anytime during the transfer window up to 31 August.

Here’s the first 6 fixtures:

Spurs (H)
Aston Villa (A)
Newcastle (H)
Swansea (A)
Liverpool (H)
Southampton (A)

Clyne

Liverpool improved their defence substantially towards the end of last season and only Southampton, WBA and Chelsea finished with more clean sheets.  Clyne was unlucky with his lack of attacking returns and with 3 good home games in the first 6 they look a good bet for GW1.

£5.5m RB Clyne looks the best bet along with CB Skrtel at the same price.  There are cheaper options and if you’re really willing to gamble £4.5m LB Gomez looks like a possible starter.  However apart from Clyne and Skrtel it’s difficult to guarantee the other 2 starters.

GK Mignolet is surprisingly only £5.0m and was the 2nd highest point scoring GK last season despite being dropped for a short period and looks an option for Liverpool defensive representation.  Unfortunately understudy Bogdan is £4.5m

Here’s the first 6 fixtures:

Stoke (A)
Bournemouth (H)
Arsenal (A)
West Ham (H)
Man Utd (A)
Norwich (H)

Kompany

Man City were a defensive disaster so many times last season that it’s easy to forget that like Liverpool only Chelsea, Southampton and WBA got more clean sheets.  Things have to improve this season.

It’s hard to pin down anyone apart from GK Joe Hart who will start without significant rotation risk but captain Kompany is probably the closest.  His gametime risk is more about injury.  If City had a nightmare defensively Kompany had a double nightmare and blanked attacking wise. Nothing about this sound good.  It’s all about a belief that things will get better and no one defensively apart from Kompany has any gametime security.

GK Hart fared better than most of the top 4 challenging GKs finishing 3rd and is slightly cheaper than Kompany at £5.5m.  Again whether thats still enough to get him with the bonus changes is another question

Here’s the first 6 fixtures:

West Brom (A)
Chelsea (H)
Everton (A)
Watford (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
West Ham (H)

Lescott

WBA were the defensive revelation under the defensive maestro Tony Pulis and his transformation was quite remarkable.  Only Chelsea had more clean sheets last season.

CB Olsson may start as the £4.5m defender but if you want to be safe then Lescott has guaranteed gametime at £5.0m.

GK Myhill is only £4.5m but will lose his place in October when Foster returns.  No GK with any amount of games had a better points per game than Myhill

Here’s the first 6 fixtures:

Man City (H)
Watford (A)
Chelsea (H)
Stoke (A)
Southampton (H)
Aston Villa (A)

Alderweireld

If you thought the Man City defence was a disaster then Spurs make them look like a well oiled machine.  Incredibly only Newcastle, Palace and QPR got less clean sheets than Spurs last season.  However Alderweireld should stiffen things up and another year with Pochettino should improve the defence after the great job he did at Southampton.  However it still requires a great leap of faith

Luckily Alderweireld is reasonably priced at £5.0m and for that reason I wouldn’t consider anyone else.

Here’s the first 6 fixtures:

Man Utd (A)
Stoke (H)
Leicester (A)
Everton (H)
Sunderland (A)
Crystal Palace (H)

Baines

Only a good late run saw Everton get 10 clean sheets which was the same as the likes of Hull, Aston Villa and Leicester.  However this was undoubtedly affected by the Europa League and that not being a concern should improve the situation this season.

For me you’re either all in or not at all and thats my reasoning for Baines if you’ve got the nerve.    With 2 goals and 9 assists it’s a hope for a clean sheet improvement and a repeat of his attacking exploits that are the reason for selecting him for what is a pretty steep price to say the least.  It’s made worse by the fact that he’s lost penalties to Lukaku and even free kicks seem to be distributed around

Watford (H)
Southampton (A)
Man City (H)
Spurs (A)
Chelsea (H)
Swansea (A)
West Brom (A)

Cedric

Southampton really are the ultimate leap of faith this season.  Even more than Spurs.  Last season only Chelsea had more clean sheets and better underlying defensive stats.  However this is a defence ripped apart with Alderweireld, Clyne and CDM Schenirderlin gone and GK Forster out for most of the season with injury.  However such is Koemans stock that it isn’t beyond possible that he could repeat something like last year even if not as much.

With RB Cedric showing good attacking potential in pre-season and a reasonable price of £5.0m then that at least doesn’t make it too big a fund drain.  They have good fixtures early on but can you really see him in your team home and away.

£5.0m GK Stekelenburg is reasonable value but questionable whether a £4.5m option would be better

Here’s the first 6 fixtures:

Newcastle (A)
Everton (H)
Watford (A)
Norwich (H)
West Brom (A)
Man Utd (H)

Follow us on twitter @fantasyfoot20 or facebook at www.facebook.com/fantasyfootballgeek

This website is free. If you find it useful please support us via the donate button on the site

fantasy premier league league code: 68300-19117
Sky Sports Fantasy Football: PIN: 8124402
Sun Dream Team: FANTASYFOOTBALLGEEK PIN: 8360910
Telegraph Fantasy Football: FantasyFootballGeek PIN 8000919

You may also like to read one of these too: