In the upcoming Gameweek, Crystal Palace have two fixtures – Everton at home and Manchester City away.
With exertions in the UEFA Conference League to consider, many Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers are looking to buy a Palace defender, hoping they’ll be less susceptible to some Oliver Glasner rotation. But which one should you go for? Let’s look at the stats for their back five.
BEST CRYSTAL PALACE DEFENDER
Most goal attempts
- Daniel Munoz (£5.9m) has 24 from 25 starts
- Just behind is Maxence Lacroix (£5.2m), with 22 in 32 starts
Most chances created
- Tyrick Mitchell (£5.0m) started 33 times, setting up 28 attempts
- 20 in 25 belong to Daniel Munoz
Rate of DefCons
- Jaydee Canvot (£4.5m) and Maxence Lacroix both have 10.8 defensive contributions per start
- It’s 10.0 for Chris Richards (£4.4m)
Rate of bonus points
- Jaydee Canvot and Maxence Lacroix are tied again, with 5.5 minutes per baseline bonus
Best for xGI
- Daniel Munoz has 361.7 minutes per expected goal involvement (xGI)
- Other Palace defenders with 10 or more starts are around 800 to 900 for this metric
Most starts
- 33 – Tyrick Mitchell
- 32 – Maxence Lacroix
- 29 – Chris Richards
Looking at the data, Munoz is clearly the most attacking, but with barely a shot per game and less than one chance created each time, you may need a bit of luck for that attacking return to fall in Double Gameweek 36. His minutes per xGI suggest an attacking return every three to four outings.
Mitchell has the most starts and assist potential, but he is still creating less than one chance per game. And with 10 fewer shots from eight more games, the cheaper wing-back may not be worth targeting over Munoz.
Richards doesn’t show up in the upper echelon of Palace defender data as much as Lacroix and Canvot. Indeed, it’s a neck-and-neck tussle between these two French centre-backs in terms of bonus and DefCon potential.
Canvot, who has established himself in the side since Marc Guehi‘s (£5.1m) departure, has five goal attempts in 10 starts, so Lacroix is beating him for shot volume but not quality, when looking at minutes per xGI (742.9 v 912.2).
As we saw in Gameweek 35 against Bournemouth, rotation has now reached the Palace backline. Munoz and Mitchell played half a match each, while Richards came on late.
But if you did want to attack this upcoming double, Canvot could be their best defender to go for. Cheaper than Lacroix, he’s started just 11 league matches, meaning a less gruelling campaign compared to the others.
Additionally, as a centre-back, he’s less likely to need resting than a marauding wing-back who goes up and down the flanks.
