Here’s our fantasy premier league defender tips GW18 article where we give our defender and GK player rankings for gameweek 18. There’s a comprehensive table of stats and player suggestions to help you make a transfer choice.
fantasy premier league defender tips GW18 – player rankings for Defs and Gks
There’s player transfer 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 their goals, clean sheets and xG/shots conceded. You can see team defence and player xG in our cumulative underlying stats article
The stats after that are their:
fixture ease ranking so you can see who has the best fixtures to the end of the season. The first figure is GW18-23, the 2nd GW18-20. See our fixture ease article
best cheap secure gametime option and an attacking option so you can compare price.
GK price in as a comparison.
bookies odds for a clean sheet for GW18. The lower the better obviously.
Prices are as of Tuesday 18 December
Gameweek 18 Fixtures
The Schedule
If you want access to copy and paste the schedule here’s the google spreadsheet link which I’ve set out differently if you want to sort different columns
Some player transfer suggestions for GW18
Here were trying to find a good defensive team with a good transfer entry point and reasonable ongoing fixtures as the basis for suggestion.
Manchester City
Despite 1 clean sheet in their last 7 and none in the last 4 they have the best underlying defensive stats of any team even if Liverpool have the least goals conceded and clean sheets. Home to Crystal Palace is a great transfer entry point and the fixtures coming are also good.
Laporte is the safest outfield gametime option. However if you want to save some cash and take a risk you can go with £5.3m Delph who is the supposed Mendy replacement although Pep has rotated with Zinchenko. The other option is Stones at £5.3m where you accept a greater risk of rotation for the money saved.
Crystal Palace (H)
Leicester (A)
Southampton (A)
Liverpool (H)
Wolves (H)
Huddersfield (A)
Liverpool
Robertson and Van Dijk are the risk free options. As it stands Liverpool have conceded the least goals and have the most clean sheets in the PL. It remains to be seen whether injuries to Gomez and Alexander Arnold weaken the defence but they do takeaway the 2 budget options.
With Matip and Gomez both injured for 4-5 weeks or so that opens the door for £4.9m Lovren to play a decent sequence of games. The problem with the Alexander Arnold injury is that the time frame seems totally up in the air so it is a gamble to go for £4.5m replacement Clyne.
Wolves (A)
Newcastle (H)
Arsenal (H)
Man City (A)
Brighton (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Chelsea
Chelsea are hands down the 3rd best defensive team and have a good run of games ahead. The choice is easy. The attacking potential of Alonso or the value of Luiz. It’s not often there’s such a big gap for an attacking premium but Alonso is not any fullback.
Leicester (H)
Watford (A)
Crystal Palace (A)
Southampton (H)
Newcastle (H)
Arsenal (A)
Arsenal
Injury and suspensions may have been some excuse but it was another fairly pitiful defensive performance from Arsenal.
The only temptation maybe the next and upcoming value of Lichsteiner at £4.5m if he is fit or pay a little more at £4.9m for Kolasinac if he’s fit. Both represent a gamble in addition to fitness as the manager is extremely unpredictable with selections.
Leicester (H)
Watford (A)
Crystal Palace (A)
Southampton (H)
Newcastle (H)
Arsenal (A)
See also our fixture ease article as well as who the 10 top managers I follow have in their team
Also see who the popular defenders are for transfers in with our bandwagons and sinking ships article
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