Here’s our fantasy premier league article where we rank the best defenders and GK’s for DGW35. There’s a table of stats plus some narrative and the fixtures to the end of the season to help you make your decision. Plus we look at a range of alternatives in the team depending on value and attacking ability. We also look at the GK option in the team
Fantasy premier league GW35 – “ones to watch” best defenders/GKs
I’ve tried to balance out attacking potential vs the premium price you pay for that player rather than just going for the attacking player automatically. I’ve put together a table of stats with a key below it to rank the 10 best defenders. Below that I’ve put some narrative on each player plus their fixtures to the end of the season. I’ll also try and talk about the GK option. I haven’t included any defenders from the DGW31 teams Aston Villa and QPR as I don’t think they warrant it. The stats don’t include tonights Chelsea v Leicester game.
| Rank | Name | value | Last 5 games | Mins per FPL point | Goals/Assts | CS – H/A | fixt ease6/(3) fixt | top 10 FPL managers own |
| 1. | Koscielny | £6.0m | 3 CS | 18.4 mins | 3/0 | 7/5 | 2 | 1 (2) |
| 2. | Ivanovic | £7.7m | 3 CS | 18.0 mins | 4/5 | 10/6 | 12 | 6 (13) |
| 3. | Skrtel | £6.0m | 2 CS | 21.4 mins | 1/0 | 6/8 | 8 | 4(9) |
| 4. | Stones | £5.2m | 3 CS | 22.1 mins | 1/0 | 8/2 | 6 | 0(0) |
| 5. | Collins | £4.4m | 2 CS | 37.5 mins | 0/0 | 6/2 | 1 | 0(0) |
| 6. | Alderweireld | £4.8m | 2 CS | 22.9 mins | 1/0 | 11/4 | 10 | 1 (7) |
| 7. | Vlaar | £4.3m | 1 CS | 28.6 mins | 0/0 | 3/6 | 3 | 0 (1) |
| 8. | Morgan | £4.4m | 2 CS | 34.6 mins | 1/1 | 4/3 | 5 | 1 (1o) |
| 9. | Ryan Taylor | £4.4m | 0 CS | 46.4 mins | 0/0 | 4/3 | 4 | 0 (2) |
| 10. | Van Aanholt | £4.1m | 1 CS | 31.5 mins | 0/5 | 5/5 | 14 | 7 (12) |
Key:
Last 5 games: Clean sheets in the last 5 fixtures
Mins per FPL point: How long it takes a player to earn an FPL point. The lower the better obviously
Goals/Assist; Goals/Assists so far in the season
CS – H/A: The clean sheets so far this season. Home/Away
Fixture ease: The easiness of the next fixtures to the end of the season. Done from an attacking point of view but does give an indication of fixture ease
Top 10 FPL managers own: How many of the 10 top FPL managers I follow have the player in the team (In brackets is the amount of players from that team in the FPL managers teams)
Koscielny
So much value in the Arsenal defence but so much uncertainty over rotation especially in relation to the DGW37 coming up. Koscielny is so vital to their defence that he is probably the strongest bet to play twice but that assumes theres something to play for. However £6.0m when you’ve got Bellerin for £4.6m and Monreal for £4.8m seems extravagant but neither of those 2 can be guaranteed to play 2 games. GK Ospina at £4.9m is probably the best bet of the cheapies to play 2 games.
Hull (A)
Swansea (H)
DGW37 Man Utd (A)
DGW37 Sunderland (H)
West Brom (H)
Ivanovic
£7.7m is some price for a defender even a Chelsea one with an attacking pedigree of Ivanovic. Cahill getting a regular place at £6.3m looks good value. Risk though if Chelsea win the game early for rotation especially for Terry.
Crystal Palace (H)
Liverpool (H)
West Brom (A)
Sunderland (H)
Skrtel
Liverpool have just dropped off a bit defensively with their clean sheet form not being up to their post xmas standards. However they are a good defensive team with reasonable fixtures to come. Like Arsenal there is some selection inconsistency and injuries which gives gametime risk to a number of players. Skrtel is the safe bet. GK Mignolet at £5.4m looks good value
QPR (H)
Chelsea (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Stoke (A)
Stones
The Everton defence has come out of it’s laughing stock phase and 3 clean sheets in the last 5 is testament to that form. If you’re swimming in cash then Baines at £7.1m is the obvious pick but his attraction has been diminished by not taking pens and with set piece duties also being diluted by other players. However 2 goals and 9 assists is still a pretty impressive return. GK Howard at £5.1m isn’t bad value and very secure gametime wise
Aston Villa (A)
Sunderland (H)
West Ham (A)
Spurs (H)
Collins
The West Ham defence hasn’t been great this season and at the moment they’re sleepwalking to the end of the season. However what they have is good fixtures and Collins is excellent value at £4.4m. Creswell is the excellent attacking option with 2 goals and 4 assists this season plus a share of direct free kicks but £5.6m is an eye watering price. GK Adrian is fairly expensive too at £5.1m
Burnley (H)
Aston Villa (A)
Everton (H)
Newcastle (A)
Alderweireld
Southampton have undoubtedly been the defensive revelation of the season and Alderweireld is great value at £4.8m. Bertrand and Clyne are defeinitely the attacking picks but are £1.1m and £1.4m more expensive respectively. GK Davis is also excellent value at £4.5m. The reason for the low ranking is that 4 of their last 5 games are away where they haven’t been so defensively solid. Southampton as a team have a big ownership defensively and some representation if you are looking to hold your ranking or mini league place could be helpful.
Sunderland (A)
Leicester (A)
Aston Villa (H)
Man City (A)
Vlaar
The Aston Villa CB is another pick solely for value and fixtures with 3 home games out of 4. This is not about form or season returns as you will see from the stats, especially after Sherwood has given them more of an attacking emphasis. No particular alternative choice.
Everton (H)
West Ham (H)
Southampton (A)
Burnley (H)
Morgan
Recent defensive form from Leicester has been ok although you would hardly say that over the whole of the season. This is about improved form and some reasonable fixtures. Also he’s shown good recent bonus attraction when clean sheets have come their way. Schlupp at £4.5m is a more attacking option when he’s fit and has 3 goals and an assist. GK Schmeichel is reasonable value too at £4.4m
Newcastle (H)
Southampton (H)
Sunderland (A)
QPR (H)
Ryan Taylor
If there are picks that above are about value and fixtures rather than form and season returns this is definitely another. Ryan Taylor though also has set piece (including direct free kick) potential and an ability to play in midfield which adds to the attraction. He does have a little gametime risk though so Coloccini at £4.5m is a more secure starter. Janmaat is the attacking option with 1 goal and 8 assists although far more expensive at £5.3m. GK Krul is also reasonable value at £4.4m
Leicester (A)
West Brom (H)
QPR (A)
West Ham (H)
Van Aanholt
The Sunderland defence has dropped off a little since the sacking of Poyet but their DGW37 and Van Aanholts price makes him an good pick for that fixture even if you keep him on the bench for most of the others. 5 assists shows his attacking potential too. The only other player worth considering is GK Pantilimon at £4.5m.
Southampton (H)
Everton (A)
DGW37 Leicester (H)
DGW37 Arsenal (A)
Chelsea (A)
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