Here’s our fantasy premier league GW23 defenders article where we give our defender and GK player rankings for gameweek 23. There’s a table of information and player suggestions to help you make a transfer choice
fantasy premier league GW23 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 GW23. 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 23 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. Just go File> make a copy to get your own version
The teams are ranked by defensive strength only. Fixtures are not factored in.
Biggest movers over the last 5 gameweeks
Movers up
Arsenal
up 5 places over the last 5 gameweeks to 11th ranked.
Arteta has seen a significant improvement in the team in the 5 games in charge (if you count v Everton). He’s only had an xG against him of more than 1 goal in 1 of those 5 games.
West Ham
Up 3 places over the last 5 gameweeks to 14th ranked
A fairly mixed set of performances but they were coming from a very low base so improvement wasn’t difficult. 2 less than 1 goal against xG performances against Bournemouth and Southampton helped
Southampton
Up 3 places over the last 5 gameweeks to 13th ranked
4 less than 1 goal against xG performances have really been pleasant surprises.
Movers down
Burnley
Down 5 places to 16th
Some pretty atrocious performances recently
Leicester
Down 4 places to 6th
Having played Man City and Liverpool there was bound to be a dip. However 16 shots and an xG of 2.2 against Southampton was a major eye opener. No clean up man in Ndidi either.
Bournemouth
Down 4 places to 17th. Simon Francis continues to play. The GK situation is never properly sorted and the best defender in Ake continues to play at LB at times. The mind boggles
Newcastle
Down 3 places to 18
Have been terrible in their last 4 although the fixtures weren’t easy. Injuries not helping either
Transfer suggestions for GW23
Here I trying to find a combination of defensive strength, a good next fixture and fixtures beyond that for me this week there are 3.
If you want to see the teams next fixtures I’ve put the fixture ease schedule showing the next 6 gameweeks below
Liverpool
The best defence in the league and with 2 games in GW24 it’s time to get someone or 2 in unless you’re doing a Costas and going for the Liverpool triple attack.
Alexander Arnold and Robertson are favoured for me due to their attacking ability. Gomez has been excellent and is far cheaper. I personally don’t trust Klopp with the CB selection if Matip is fit for GW24.
Man City
Not for the faint hearted. Only for those who don’t mind spending cash and are not phased by team sheets that you could never predict. However I believe the underlying stats will be rewarded with clean sheets going forward. Mendy would be my choice here but he will be rotated with Angelino and Zinchenko as potential LBs. The alternative would be to wait to Laporte returns which will steady the ship.
Everton
Not the perfect entry point away to West Ham but the fixtures overall are good. Holgate is the cheap option but Ancelotti has talked about the possibility of rotating him Digne and Sidibe are far more expensive at £5.7m and £5.4m respectively but offer attacking threat
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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