Here’s our fantasy premier league GW18 defenders article where we give our defender and GK player rankings for gameweek 18. There’s a table of information and player suggestions to help you make a transfer choice
fantasy premier league GW18 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 GW18. 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 Wednesday 18 December
All stats are from the excellent free sites understat and whoscored.com
Gameweek 18 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 GW18
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
Wolves
Only 1 clean sheet in the last 6 but 5 of those games have seen an xG against of less than 1 goal although the GK hasn’t exactly covered himself in glory which isn’t helpful. You have the choice of cheapie Saiss at £4.4m or the attacking monster of Doherty at the rather eye watering price of £6.1m. You have to see Doherty as a fixture punt where you gambling that a goal and clean sheet will bring that gameweek changing 15 FPL points.
Man Utd
Manchester United continue to put up good underlying stats without getting the clean sheets to match. They have recorded an xG Against of less than 1 goal against in 9 games but only have 2 clean sheets. Surely this has to change. Maguire is probably the best bet for me
Man City
With no game for Liverpool or West Ham in GW18 it’s a pretty unsuitable time to run this risk of the Pep lineup lottery. However with Stones and Laporte injured and neither seemingly back imminent surely Otamendi must start? If you’re feeling extra adventurous or have a big bench for GW18 then Mendy at £5.5m practically played as a winger in possession vs Arsenal.
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 thought 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 free stats site fbref.com
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image by https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harry_Maguire_2018-07-11_1.jpg
Attribution: Антон Зайцев [CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL]
