Here’s our interim fantasy premier league GW1 defender tips article where we give our defender and GK player rankings for GW1. There’s a table of stats and player suggestions to help you make a choice for your FPL team. There will be another article next week
fantasy premier league GW1 defender tips – player rankings for Defs and GKs interim article
There’s player suggestions at the end if you want to skip all the stats preamble.
Stats definitions
I’ve firstly ordered the teams by what I think is their defensive strength based on last season’s stats plus team adjustments and world cup returner adjustments. The stats after that are their:
bookies odds for a clean sheet for GW1. I’ve used clean sheet odds from Betway
fixture ease ranking so you can see who has the best fixtures to GW1-4 and GW1-8. See our fixture ease article
best cheap secure gametime option and an attacking option so you can compare price. There is also a cheap option which is there to be monitored and a short term option which will step into the defence pending the return of someone from world cup duty.
GK price in as a comparison. I have only put starters for GW1 with longevity who won’t be replaced by World Cup returners
Def xG ETC. These are expected goals conceded rank overall and home and away. Information is from the excellent free site understat.com. You can see our underlying stats article for more info
GW1 Fixtures
The Schedule
Here’s the schedule in a similar format to last season. It maybe difficult to make out especially on a phone so if you’d rather have access to the original google spreadsheet click on the link. It should be set up so anyone can view but not alter. So just copy and paste it into your own spreadsheet if you want to mess about with it
Player suggestions
Here I’m looking for players in teams with good defensive strength and good fixtures. Normally I would suggest that you should focus your transfer on a player with a good fixture next but that doesn’t work so well as a theory for GW1
Remember with £4.5m defenders they can be rotated to give good fixture pairs. See my article on the subject
Robertson Liverpool – a fantastic left back who gets forward effectively. 1 goal and 5 assists in 22 starts last season. There are cheaper options in the Liverpool defence at £5.0m but the question is can Clyne hold off Alexander Arnold and can you wait for Lovren to return and hopefully get his place back over Matip likely.
Chelsea – Chelsea have some good fixtures. The Community Shield should give us a £5.5m option with one of the 4 of Emerson, Zappacosta, Christensen or Luiz. Azpilicueta should be safe but he’s not cheap. Courtois leaving for Madrid and £5.0m Schmeichel or Pickford joining would be ideal.
Man Utd – £5.0m Shaw is the short term option unless he can turn around Mourinho’s opinion of him before Young returns. Bailly offers the medium position at £5.5m. De Gea is costly but is fairly risk free with save points
Man City – difficult due to the absentees. Mendy is undoubtedly the best option if he is match fit. The Community Shield should help. Otherwise Otamendi is the hope from the start with longevity but he doesn’t come cheap. Ederson hasn’t been seen in pre-season but GKs probably are able to start on less pre-season.
Palace have some good fixtures and a choice of a £4.0m likely starter in Wan Bissaka, a solid £4.5m in Tomkins who can also score and a rampaging attacking force in £5.5m Van Aanholt. It’s just whether they can keep clean sheets. There is some theory that short term bursts of good fixtures should be the subject of players like Van Aanholt as you’re effectively rolling the dice in the hope of a 15 point return.
£4.0m Defenders and GKs
In defence for me Wan Bissaka of Palace leads the pack here and looks more than likely to start at RB. I don’t give much hope for Schelotto of Brighton but Bruno is 37. There’s Bennett of Wolves although I’m worried Saiss may take his place in defence. Lastly there’s Peltier of Cardiff who was in and out of the side last season. He’s not on the schedule as he may have some concussion issues but that aside I give him a good chance of starting.
In goal the situation is tricky if you’re looking to back up a playing GK with a £4.0m GK. To me none are likely to start. I guess Hamer of Leicester or Stekelneburg could if Schmeichel or Pickford go to Chelsea. I doubt Pickford will be fit for GW1 anyway Otherwise I’d give Button of Brighton the best chance of breaking through ultimately.
If you’re looking to play a £4.5m GK and back it up with the reserve £4.0m then you’re in for a tough time. Again I would say Button backing up Ryan at Brighton would be your best shot. Boruc backs up Begovic but having a Bournemouth GK as your only 1 is a recipe for weekly negative points.
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