With so many midfield and striking talents there will definitely be a need for possibly 3 budget defenders at the minimum price in your team which are rotated home and away.  However,   I’m not going to cover them all here.  They have been covered recently in my gameweek 25 article rating the best defenders in the best defences and will be covered in my upcoming “ones to watch ” article for fantasy premier league gameweek 27.  What I’m going to do in this article is decide which budget fantasy premier league defenders you should have from 3 teams that have reasonably good fixtures and good home records but no clear pick as to who is the best budget choice.  They are Southampton,  Norwich and Reading.  The idea will be to find who has the gametime security, the  best value and has the best attacking potential

Norwich

The back 4 at the moment are:

R Martin£4.2m, Bassong £5.2m, Turner £4.1m, Garrido £4.7m.  Im going to ditch garrido and Bassong as over priced so its a competition between R Martin and Turner.  So heres the comparison

R Martin £4.2m

Started 17 (1611 minutes) games including last 8, 3 goals 1 assist and 1 bonus point.  5 clean sheets.  Total points 65 points

Turner £4.1m

Started 17 (1576 minutes) games including last 10, 1 goal and no assists 7 bonus points.  6 Clean sheets.  Total points 58 points

So not much in it from that.  Martin on the face of it seems more of an attacking threat but Turner more likely to get bonus points.  Both seem secure in game time.

Lets look at the underlying stats

Here Martin is ahead in game involvement, penalty box touches, goal attempts in box, shot accuracy and chances created.  Definitely worth the extra £0.1m

Verdict R Martin

Southampton

The first choice back 4 is as follows:  Clyne £4.1m, Shaw £4.0m (injured 75% chance of playing)  Fonte £4.0m (50% chance of playing) and Yoshida £4.5m.

I’m discounting Yoshida for the extra cost:

Clyne £4.1m

Started 23 (2029 minutes) games including last 6, 1 goals 3 assists and 4 bonus points.  4 clean sheets.  Total points 63 points

Shaw £4.0m (injured but should be back for GW27)

Started 14 (1229 minutes) games including 14/15 before injured, 0 goals 0 assists and 2 bonus points.  4 clean sheets.  Total points 45 points

Fonte £4.0m (injured return needs monitoring)

Started 20 (1800 minutes) games. Started all clubs 20 games before being injured.  2 goals 2 assists and 4 bonus points.  2 clean sheets.  Total points 54 points

On this it seems a clear choice between Fonte and Clyne when Fonte returns from injury but Clyne seems well ahead of Shaw in attacking terms.  However, lets see what the underlying stats reveal.

Its a typical fullback vs centre back comparison with Clyne and Fonte.  Fonte is ahead on pen box touches and shots in the box but Clyne is ahead on chances created.  As I believe shots in the box is an easier correlation to goals than chances created is to assists then I would be going for Fonte when he returns from injury.  What of Clyne vs Shaw though?

Here Clyne has the edge but not too significantly.  Neither has much shot data but Clyne is miles ahead on penalty area touches and is far better off on chances created.  Worth the extra £0.1m

Verdict: Fonte for me when returns from injury in the mean time Clyne

Reading

The first choice back 4 at the moment seems to be Kelly £4.0m, Pearce £3.8m, Mariappa £3.8m and Harte £3.9m.  All are within the choice scope

Kelly £4.0m

Started last 4  games , 0 goals 0 assists and 0 bonus points.  0 clean sheets.  Total points 6 points.  Last season 1 assist in 2000 minutes with Fulham

Pearce £3.8m

Started 14 (1286 minutes) games including last 9, 0 goals 1 assists and 2 bonus points.  2 clean sheets.  Total points 33 points

Mariappa £3.8m

Started 18 (1620 minutes) games including last 14, 1 goals 0 assists and 2 bonus points.  2 clean sheets.  Total points 36 points

Harte £3.9m

Started 12 (1075 minutes) games including last 9, 0 goals 3 assists and 2 bonus points.  3 clean sheets.  Total points 39 points

I’m going to discount Kelly due to lack of data and a poor attacking return history from last year makes it unlikely anything will change this year.  Harte seems to have the edge due to his set piece duties but firstly lets compare the underlying stats of the 2 CBs Pearce and Mariappa for attacking returns as both seem settled gametime wise.  By the way all 4 have competition for places it just seems that all have now settled in their gametime security

Penalty area touches and goal attempts in the box is clearly  Pearce.  Pearce has far more game involvement in the final third and creates more chances for team mates.  Pearce wins the attacking underlying stats easily

As for Harte vs Pearce, again its the predictable CB vs FB comparison.  Pearce leds the shooting stats but Harte has far better chances created stats.  Although I would normally favour the CB in these instances Hartes set piece involvement including corners and free kicks means he’s my choice

Verdict:  in order Harte, Pearce, Mariappa, Kelly