You’re picking the WRONG defenders in your FPL team

Frimpong & Van Dijk

Jeremie Frimpong is currently in 30% of teams, making him the most popular defender in the game.

We know that he’ll be very attacking but his minutes are far from guaranteed.

Connor Bradley featured 19 times in the league for Liverpool last season and was more than capable in those games.

It’s likely that Frimpong will be first choice but it would be sensible to wait and see how many minutes Bradley gets.

On the other hand, we know that Van Dijk will play every single league game that he’s available for.

Of course, he doesn’t offer the same attacking threat as Frimpong but Liverpool kept the most clean sheets last season and you don’t want to miss out on any of those points.

Aina & Murillo

Ola Aina is in around 17% of teams right now and for good reason as he was one of the highest scoring defenders last season.

Forest’s opening fixtures are fantastic too so I do get the appeal of starting with one of their defenders.

However, I believe Murillo is the better Nottingham Forest option is worth the extra £0.5m.

Not only did he outscore Aina last season, he also racked up more bonus points than any other defender and stands to benefit hugely from the new defensive contribution points.

Porro & Udogie

Pedro Porro is currently in around 10% of FPL teams and again, I can understand why given Spurs’ opening fixtures.

He’s also on some pieces when Maddison isn’t on the pitch so does offer a route to attacking returns.

Destiny Udogie is just priced too nicely to ignore at £4.5m, a whole £1.0m less than Porro.

I think we’ll see Porro on less set pieces this season and from open play they offer very similar attacking threat so I don’t think Porro is worth the extra £1.0m.

Cucurella & Colwill

Cucurella is in around 20% of FPL teams at the moment and is one of a plethora of £6.0m defender options.

He was impressive last season but massively outscored his xG with 5 goals from 2.79 xG.

It’s tough for any player to consistently outscore their xG so I prefer one of the CB options from Chelsea.

Colwill at £5.0m is the safest but if Fofana gets good minutes in pre-season then he could prove a bargain at £4.5m.

Aït-Nouri & Gvardiol

City’s new signing Rayan Aït-Nouri is the 3rd highest owned defender at around 28%.

My stance on this could change as pre-season plays out but right now I don’t think we can be sure enough on his minutes to warrant spending £6.0m on him.

Gvardiol is the same price but is much more reliable as we know from last season that he doesn’t miss many games for City.

He may not offer the same attacking threat as Aït-Nouri but it’s likely that he’ll offer more consistent starts.

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