Here’s our fantasy premier league GW17 defenders article where we give our defender and GK player rankings for gameweek 17. There’s a table of information and player suggestions to help you make a transfer choice
fantasy premier league GW17 defenders – player rankings for Defs and Gks
Avoiding the preamble
If you just want a quick transfer suggestion I’ve given these after the schedule if you want to skip all the preamble.
Stats definitions:
I’ve firstly ordered the teams by what I think is their defensive strength based their goals conceded, xG conceded and the shots per game conceded. These stats are for 19/20 only. You can see the rank of each stat mentioned above in the first 3 columns.
The stats after that are their:
My suggested defender for that team. I’ve tried to take into account what I think is an appropriate price for the team as well as their attacking and points potential. The table then shows their value and current 19/20 PPM
The likely starting GK for the team with the same price and PPM next to them
A bookies odds for a clean sheet for GW17. The lower the better obviously.
The fixture ease rank. The team facing the easiest attacking teams over the next 6 gameweeks is ranked 1. See our fixture ease article
Prices are as of Thursday 12 December
All stats are from the excellent free sites understat and whoscored.com
Gameweek 17 Fixtures
It’s a normal Saturday deadline
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. Just go File> make a copy to get your own version
The teams are ranked by defensive strength only. Fixtures are not factored in.
Transfer suggestions for GW17
Here I trying to find a combination of defensive strength, a good next fixture and fixtures beyond that for me this week there are 6.
If you want to see the teams next fixtures I’ve put the fixture ease schedule showing the next 6 gameweeks below
Leicester
Probably being the most consistent defensive side. A great fixture next home to Norwich but afterwards it’s more mixed with the next 2 in particular being unhelpful. You have the cheaper option of Soyuncu at £5.1m who you may find more palatable to be on your bench than the attacking option of Chilwell at £5.8m
Liverpool
A great fixture next then a blank and then they are pretty mixed. You could be forgiven for going without. Luckily there is the hedge of their FBs attacking ability and I’ve stuck with my first choice of Alexander Arnold here
Man Utd
Despite good underlying statistics it’s still only 2 clean sheets and without any great attacking potential for the defenders the PPMs are nothing short of pathetic.
However you would think those stats have to be converted into clean sheets at some stage and if they ever will it’s this current fixture run. Maguire is my choice
Chelsea
There’s alot of tinkering with the lineup going on from Lampard at the moment which makes selection difficult. However my choice would be Reece James the right back. He will be rotated but that risk is with everyone. At least has the attacking potential to add to what is look a reasonable defence for £5.0m
Crystal Palace
An inability to score goals means they have no choice but to defend and they have a good run to take advantage of it. Kelly is the cheapest version although I imagine he will be replaced by Ward when fit although that could be sometime yet.
The fixture ease schedule for defensive players
Here’s a graphic where the teams are ranked by the ease of the attacking teams they face over the next 6 gameweeks.
The clean sheet schedule
My schedule tries to focus on the stats that will lead to clean sheets rather than clean sheets themselves but I though it would be worth while getting the clean sheet schedule from the premier league site
Goalkeeper save %
Here’s another schedule which shows you a goalkeeper save %. It’s not a ranking in itself as you can see there’s no correlation between % and clean sheets but does give you some idea of GKs who are good shot stoppers. It’s from the stats site fbref.com
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