Here’s our fantasy premier league defenders article where we look for the mythical £4.0m defender who’s going to lineup in GW1
fantasy premier league defenders – searching for the £4.0m defender
With the amount of premium players available and the pricing structure in FPL this season a nailed on £4.0m defender would be a great bonus. Here we look at the possibilities from a GW1 perspective and touch on a longer term perspective. The longer perspective is less relevant though as there is a first half season wildcard which alot of managers will look to use by GW6. Therefore should one appear in the early weeks we can get him in then. In this article though we’ll be concentrating on GW1.
I’m going to list them in order they appear in the fantasy premier league defenders section of the website. I’ll then sum up at the end as to who I think is best so go to that if you just want the quick answer
Rangel RB Swansea
The top point scoring £4.0m defender in terms of last seasons points. However, he’s 34 years old and only started 8 games with 10 as sub compared to Naughton who started 31 games last season. Naughton also looks the favoured option in preseason so he seems an unlikely choice that would rely on an injury to start. Swansea do also have Kyle Bartley who can play RB if needed. He’s not going to start for me
Mariappa CB Watford
The 30 year old CB did have a possible chance at one stage as played a few games towards the end of last season. However he now has a knee injury with no return date. Also Watford have a plethora of CB’s in Prodl, Britos, Kaboul and Kabasele all of which played more games than him last season. All are now fit it seems. A new manager in Silva could take a different view but the injury makes it a no for me.
Tuanzebe CB Manchester United
The versatile 19 year old defender unquestionably has talent and can play in a number of different defensive positions. However, with the amount of defenders at the club there’s no chance he’s starting GW1. His best chance of appearing in a GW1 lineup would be on loan. Unfortunately, there’s nothing mooted at the moment
Brad Smith LB Bournemouth
The Australian LB missed the Confederations Cup through a hamstring injury and is not scheduled to be fit until GW2. Way behind Charlie Daniels in the pecking order and Mings and Ake could also play LB. No realistic chance
Kevin Long CB Burnley
Not to be confused with Striker Chris Long who also plays for Burnley. Michael Keane moving to Liverpool makes it a straight fight between Tarkowski and K Long for the CB position. Tarkowski had the edge last season with 4 starts and 15 sub appearances in the league. Kevin Long only made 3 starts and no sub appearances. Long has a full Irish cap to his name so he’s no mug. Unfortunately Tarkowski has lined up with the CB certainty Ben Mee in each pre-season game so far. Long would be the number 1 back up in case of injury though.
Brandon Mason LB Watford
Now this is an interesting one. The 19 year old Londoner LB has suddenly played 84 minutes and 90 minutes in the last 2 friendlies with Holebas no where to be seen. The man with the most cautions in the premier league in Holebas was a great attacking option. However, Watford have been linked with numerous LBs in the transfer window and that isn’t a great sign. Mason needs monitoring as he only played 119 minutes last season and Watford do also have Britos who can play LB. Worth keeping an eye on though
Hunemeier CB Brighton
He’s 31 and made 11 starts last season compared to Duffy and Dunk who made 43 each. That doesn’t sound great but pre-season definitely hasn’t ruled him out at this moment. However, Dunk and Duffy lined up together at Norwich on Saturday with no sign of Hunemeier anywhere. Worth monitoring though.
Rosenior LB/RB Brighton
The 33 year old fullback only made 9 starts last season. He has had reasonable gametime in preseason but was on the bench on Saturday against Norwich for what looked like a strong lineup. Looks unlikely to start but the existing RB Bruno is 36 years old so it’s a big step up.
Goldson RB Brighton
The Brighton RB made 4 starts last season. Hasn’t really looked in pole position either in preseason and against Norwich yesterday only got 13 minutes from the bench. Can’t see it at the moment.
Cranie RB Huddersfield
The 30 year old RB made 7 starts with 9 as sub last season and has to be well behind Tommy Smith in the RB stakes. However Tommy Smith has been injured and only recently returned to training. Whether he will be match fit to start against Palace in GW1 remains to be seen but Cranies appearance would be short lived at best. He has featured prominently in preseason but it’s Smith’s minutes that need to be monitored rather than Cranies.
Stankovic CB Huddersfield
The 21 year old Slovenian CB is out with cruciate ligament damage and has an unknown return date so can be ruled out of the equation
Hudson CB Huddersfield
The 35 year old CB was the favoured CB with Schindler in the early part of the season and in fact made 16 (6) appearances. However he lost his place in the 2nd half of the season and now must be considered behind Hefele and new signing Danish International CB Zanka. Preseason has not changed that.
Hanley CB Newcastle
The 25 year old Scottish CB is no mug. He’s played 27 times for Scotland and has made 31 premier league appearances previously. However it was 5 (5) apps for Newcastle last season and you have to consider him behind newboy Lejeune and Mbemba in the reserve CB stakes. Preseason has only reinforced that. No chance for GW1
Gamez RB Newcastle
Gamez is an extremely experienced 32 year old RB who’s played 218 times in La Liga and 12 times in the Champions League. However he was completely sidelined by Benetiz last season mainly through squad selection and only made 2 (3) apps. The fact that Benetiz has bought a Sunderland RB in Manquillo, who couldn’t even get into their team most of the time, as back up for Yedlin says alot. Yedlin though has a hamstring problem which is still to be assessed. The next couple of friendlies will tell who’s favourite to replace him if the injury is serious.
Haidara LB Newcastle
The 24 year old French former U21 player only made 1 appearance as sub last season and that was in the 77th minute of the 3-0 win over Barnsley in the last game of the season. So with Dummett playing 44 games it shows he has no chance of starting in the LB position come GW1. Whats more Gamez and Clark could play left back in front of him if necessary.
So what does this mean?
If you’re looking for someone likely to start in GW1 at the moment I would say none of the above are going to do it.
If you then downgrade it to someone who might come in if there’s an injury I would say that Long, Rangel, Hunemeier and Cranie could fit that bill. That maybe an irrelevant consideration depending on when you’re planning on using your first wildcard.
At the moment the injury situation and recovery to Smith may give a chance for Cranie to play a couple of games at best but that seems pretty irrelevant as he will lose his place when Smith is fit.
The interesting one is Watford’s Mason. I don’t know what’s going on with Holebas but something doesn’t seem right when Mason suddenly plays 84 and 90 minutes in the last 2 friendlies. I’m not aware Holebas is injured. If anyone has more info that would be gratefully received.
The other monitor is a Tuanzebe possible loan. However you’d think we would have heard something by now.
I’ll keep the situation updated
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