Here’s our fantasy premier league GW30 defenders article where we give our defender and GK player rankings for gameweek 30. There’s a table of information and player suggestions to help you make a transfer choice
fantasy premier league GW30 defenders – player rankings for Defs and Gks
Introduction
This article was written on Wednesday 11 March before the Man City v Arsenal match.
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 GW30. The lower the better obviously.
The fixture ease rank. The team facing the easiest attacking teams over the next 4 gameweeks is ranked 1. The fixture ease article just goes to GW33 due to the uncertainty of fixtures in GW34 which could be the home for postponed games
GW31 fixtures: I have highlighted those 8 teams with fixtures in the blank week of GW31
Prices are as of March 10
Gameweek 30 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 GW30
If you’re concentrating on blank GW31 without freehitting
If you’re looking to get a full or near full compliment for the blank GW31 then as a starter you should have at least 1 Liverpool defender and 1 Wolves defender. I’ve put the 2 attacking options in Alexander Arnold for Liverpool and Doherty for Wolves above but for Wolves Boly (£4.8m) or Saiss (£4.5m) offer a cheap alternative
The cheap alternative for Liverpool is Joe Gomez at £5.3m
After Man City in GW30 it’s a pretty decent fixture run for Burnley and Pope (£4.8m) and Charlie Taylor are the best picks for me (£4.3m). By the way be careful that you pick Charlie Taylor of Burnley and not Neil Taylor of Villa. As I write this they are the same price and have a virtually identical strip.
That’s all I think for GW31 related players. Spurs selection has been all over the place with Aurier a sub in 2 of the last 3 games
Looking for non GW31 teams
If you’re looking for teams who will maybe have doubles later on the options in the short term aren’t great
I’m not a great fan of the Newcastle defence but at least they have some good fixtures. Lascelles is the cheap option. For a more attacking option you could look at for Matt Ritchie £5.3m. He’s expensive but has been playing min midfield and has put 2 very good sets of underlying stats up in the last 2 games.
Sheffield United are the other team with a good defensive record and not too bad fixtures. Lundstram (£4.8m) came back into the side with a bang and 12 points in GW29. Does that mean he is secure again is the question. Otherwise it’s Enda Stevens if fit (£5.1m) or O’Connell (£4.7m)
A 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 4 gameweeks. Again the teams with fixtures in GW31 dominate. There’s defensive player suggestions below.
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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