Here’s our fantasy premier league GW26 defenders article where we give our defender and GK player rankings for gameweek 26. There’s a table of information and player suggestions to help you make a transfer choice
fantasy premier league GW26 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 GW26. 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 5 February
All stats are from the free sites understat and whoscored.com
Blanks and double gameweeks warning
You may have seen my article blanks and doubles schedule and the blanks analysed from the previous gameweek
The EFL cup final clashes with GW28 meaning there are postponements. Man City v Arsenal and Aston Villa v Sheffield United are now out of GW28
Gameweek 26 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 GW26
Here I trying to find a combination of defensive strength, a good next fixture and fixtures beyond that
This week is difficult and for me there are only 2. Liverpool and Sheffield United. And only Sheffield United if you think that your bench can handle the blank GW28
If you want to see the teams next fixtures I’ve put the fixture ease schedule showing the next 5 gameweeks below
Liverpool
The best defence 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 £5.3m Joe Gomez. His form has helped Liverpool massively defensively although he has the most competition for a place with Matip and Lovren.
I personally would go with £7.0m Robertson as 2nd choice and £6.5m Van Dijk as a long 3rd.
Sheffield United
Lundstram was again benched so he is too risky a pick at the moment for me
That leaves a choice between value pick £4.6m O’Connell (PPM 3.4) and attacking pick £5.1m Enda Stevens (PPM 3.8)
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 5 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
More content
Geek note: If you join our Patreon site you will get access to an FPL contributor tracker team which combines the contributors individual teams each week to show their favourite players, transfers and captains. It will always be completed on a Friday/Saturday in a normal gameweek. There will also be an accompanying spreadsheet so you can drill down further. Currently 1,480 points 36k overall rank
You also get:
Weekly podcasts with the Geek and the other contributors
Joe’s interactive transfer planner and points projection tool plus PlannerTeam. Currently 1,462 points 69k overall rank
FFGeek private leagues
Access to the FFGeek Slack channel for discussion with the contributors and members
Weekly FFGeek contributor imaginary wildcard articles
$2 and $3 tiers per calendar month. No commitment beyond 1 month
Other Posts
Early thoughts on the FFGeek team
FFGeek contributors GW26 teams part 1
Follow FFGeek on twitter and facebook and instagram for article updates and news
Image from @cfcunofficial (Chelsea Debs) London [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]
