Here’s our fantasy premier league GW22 defenders article where we give our defender and GK player rankings for gameweek 22. There’s a table of information and player suggestions to help you make a transfer choice
fantasy premier league GW22 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 GW22. 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 Tuesday 7 January
All stats are from the free sites understat and whoscored.com
Gameweek 22 Fixtures
It’s a Friday UK time 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 GW22
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
DGW24
I’m sure you’re aware that GW24 has Liverpool and West Ham playing 2 games. For me there is no decision regarding Alexander Arnold. He should be in your team at the first opportunity. The question is whether you double up and if you do that additional player should be the other attacking full back in £7.0m Robertson.
For West Ham the only defensive player I would consider is GK Fabianski. GKs have the hedge of save points even if they concede. Fabianski historically has a good save % and you never know what’s going to happen in a double gameweek.
Sheffield United
It’s impossible to ignore Lundstram who is classified as a defender but is pretty much an attacking midfielder. The GK Henderson is also a good prospect but for me not at the sacrifice of Lundstram. A double up despite their great defensive work so far is still a fairly ballsy move if you’re going for it
Everton
Here there is a clear choice. You either go for the value of Holgate at £4.4m or the attacking attraction of the fullbacks £5.7m Digne or £5.4m Sidibe. Sidibe has played as a RM on some occasions although that depends on whether you classify the formation as 3-5-2 or 4-4-2 that they are playing. Their stats are pretty similar but Digne edges out Sidibe on volume. However either are good options
Man Utd
Man Utd finally got a clean sheet at Burnley after 14 failures despite good underlying stats. I’m still in the camp that there are more clean sheets there. I’ve gone for Wan Bissaka as Maguire is an injury doubt at the moment. I’ve written this before the EFL Cup teams are announced for United v City
A note on Leicester. They have dropped in the rankings due to the 2 defeats against Liverpool and City which knocked their stats back. The next 3 fixtures are good though after that trickier.
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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