The Numbers Game – Forward Thinking Full-Backs

As Branislav Ivanovic blazes a trail near the top of the defender rankings, it seems timely to put the position under further analysis by assessing the attacking potential of the Serb’s rivals. In this latest article for our members, we analyse the early-season data in an attempt to examine the cast of defenders offering the potential of returns at both ends of the pitch.

With Leighton Baines an ever present in such analysis, and new top flight arrivals Aaron Cresswell and Kieran Trippier receiving plenty of hype in pre-season, the attacking full-back shows great promise as a potential differential target.

This is compounded by this season’s changes to the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) bonus point system (BPS) calculation that has reduced the penalty handed out to players who raid forward to take on opponents. While it’s too early to confirm the impact of this change, it’s worth noting that four of the top five BPS scorers in defence are full-backs – right now, the dominant centre-back is not having it all his own way.

The starting point for our analysis was a custom stats table which captured a series of key indicators identified as important factors when assessing the attacking potential of a defender. We’ve chosen to sort our table by “Touches in the Final Third” in order to capture those defenders who have joined the attack most often. We’ve also included data that captures their effectiveness in terms of crossing and chances created, whilst also assessing Clearances, Blocks and Interceptions (CBI) as a means of further examining the bonus point potential of the listed candidates.

Our custom table has been made public and can be accessed here. The table will go on collecting data each week, offering a constant updated snapshot of our analysis. For now, however, let’s examine the data after the opening two Gameweeks.