Here’s our fantasy premier league GW25 defenders article where we give our defender and GK player rankings for gameweek 25. There’s a table of information and player suggestions to help you make a transfer choice
fantasy premier league GW25 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 GW25. 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 28 January
All stats are from the free sites understat and whoscored.com
Blanks and double gameweeks warning
You may have seen my article in the last couple of days on the blanks and doubles
The EFL cup final clashes with GW28 meaning there is likely to be postponements. Where they go is yet to be determined. For the moment I’ve left all fixtures as going ahead and later in the week once the EFL Cup semi finals 2nd legs have finished I can hopefully update it. The fixtures are as follows Man City (3) Man Utd (1) and Aston Villa (1) Leicester (1).
Gameweek 25 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.
Transfer suggestions for GW25
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. Liverpool, Sheffield United and C Palace
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 defencce in the league has the best attacking defender which is the case for including Alexander Arnold. If you’re trying to save money you might want to gamble on £5.2m Joe Gomez. He has been a key part of the clean sheet renaissance for Liverpool. Both Matip and Lovren are fit although neither covered themselves in glory in the FA Cup v Shrewsbury. However Matip was outstanding last season and kept Gomez out of the side earlier on so he adds that element of uncertainty to Gomez’s future selection
Sheffield United
An appearance on the bench in GW24 and maybe of less importance in the FA Cup has given John Lundstram an air of uncertainty in team selection.
That leaves a clear choice between value pick £4.6m O’Connell and attacking pick £5.1m Enda Stevens
C Palace
Palace have been a 1 man defensive phenomenon in the shape of GK Guaita. Without him you could make a case for Palace being the 14th best defence on xG conceded vs the 5th in goals conceded. How long he can keep up the superhuman performances remains to be seen. However their lack of attacking ability at least means you’ve got a team that has a strong defensive mindset and also has any number of defensive midfielders in the starting lineup to protect them.
Selection is a tricky one. Previous favourite Martin Kelly has competition from the fit again Joel Ward who is a RB rather than a makeshift RB from a CB. I would probably go for Cahill who seems to have the backing of the manager.
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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