fantasy premier league – the season so far part 3 – the value of defence

In the 3rd part of my series of the fantasy premier league season so far here’s part 3 on the value of the defence in our fantasy premier league teams

Past winners of fantasy premier league have invested nothing in defence relying on the goal fest of the premier league to invest in attacking assets.  this year is shaping up differently.  You would have seen my last post which showed that for every clean sheet the team obtaining that clean sheet was likely to get 2 defenders/GK get a bonus award of some sort.

So lets look at the top 10 point scorers in fantasy premier league and their values:

1.  Sturridge 54 points (£9.9m)

2.  YYT 50 points (£9.4m)

3.  Ramsey 47 points (£6.6m)

4.  Lovren 46 points (£5.2m)

5.  Fonte 46 points (£5.0m)

6.  Giroud 45 points (£9.5m)

7.  Terry 45 points (£6.3m)

8.  Baines 43 points (£7.7m)

9.  Boruc 42 points (£4.7m)

10.  Mignolet 41 points (£5.8m)

Incredibly 6/10 are defenders/GKs and generally at a much cheaper price than the 2 midfielders and 2 forwards in that table.  That table in itself should be enough to convince people of its worth

I’m not saying that this will continue, Southampton much as I tipped them to be a strong defensive team at the beginning of the season, wont have 3 defensive payers at the end of the season in the top 10 points scorers but it is an indication of an early trend.

Here’s the clean sheets per game week so far this year and the last 2 years:

2013/14  – 6.6 clean sheets per gameweek

2012/13 –  5.3 clean sheets per gameweek

2011/12 –  5.4 clean sheets per gameweek

So with the current performance of defensive players so far this season and a  trend towards more clean sheets per game week plus a bonus system which rewards clean sheets  means the value of defensive players shouldn’t be ignored at this stage.

So what does this mean?

With midfield becoming a minefield  (see my article on the season so far part 1 the disappearing midfielder) and defenders performing well a formation of 4-3-3 has suddenly become quite feasible.  Personally I see the following teams based on performance this year and last year as being the 9 teams that you should choose your defence from:

1.   Southampon 5 clean sheets

2.  Spurs 4 clean sheets

3.  Chelsea 3 clean sheets

4.  Manchester City 3 clean sheets

5.  Liverpool 3 clean sheets

6.  Everton 3 clean sheets

7.  West Ham 4 clean sheets

8.   Manchester United 2 clean sheets

9.   Arsenal 1 clean sheet

These teams have got a total of 28 clean sheets to date at an average of 4 clean sheets per game week.  Picking 5 defenders that have good fixtures with careful transfers means out of that pool of 9 means it wouldn’t  be unreasonable to hope for 3 clean sheets per gameweek

So hopefully this gives you some thought on defenders for your fantasy premier league team

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