Should fantasy premier league managers be thinking about how bonus points are earned when selecting defenders or do they just come with clean sheets, goals and assists anyway?
To work this out I looked at the 3 highest scoring bonus point defenders in fantasy premier league ie Baines Cahill and Reid plus Rafael and Shawcross to compare an attacking defender vs one who relys on clean sheets
Baines
Has 2 goals and 3 assists. On each time apart from 1 he has earned some form of bonus points
Has 2 clean sheets. Each one has earned a bonus
He’s scored 21 attacking points vs 13 bonus points
Cahill
Has 2 goals and 1 assist all earned some form of bonus points
Has 2 clean sheets 1 of which earned a bonus points.
Has sored 15 attacking points vs 8 bonus points
Reid
Has scored 1 goal which earned a bonus (also got a clean sheet)
In 4 clean sheets (apart from the 1 above) 2 have earned some form of bonus points.
Has got 6 attacking points vs 7 bonus points
Rafael
2 goals and 2 assists have seen some form of bonus on 3 occasions
2 clean sheets have seen no bonus points
18 attacking points vs 6 bonus points
Shawcross
No goals and no assists
5 clean sheets have seen some form of bonus on 2 occasions
No attacking points vs 6 bonus points
What does this mean?
Some form of bonus will flow with an attacking return pretty much each time. However clean sheets will probably only draw some form of bonus 50% of the time. This is just more credence for looking for attacking players. Unfortunately previous years of attacking returns don’t necessarily mean they will flow this year and looking at the attacking stats in my game week analysis is the best way of looking for attacking stats see link below to copy and paste in to your browser
Its also worth noting that out of the 9 top bonus scorers that 6/9 are CB’s and 3 FBs. I personally would prefer a CB as its easier to predict attacking returns from underlying stats but generally I will look to the cheapest one in the team. However the above info assists when its a close decision or not that clear whos the best option
fantasy premier league – game week 12 – stats analysis – midfielders and defenders
