Much to the frustration of Fantasy managers, the past two gameweeks have brought a limited number of clean sheets right across the board. Only five were recorded over the twenty matches, with the lack of returns on offer indicative of an unpredictable Fantasy season so far.
After nine rounds of matches, two of the promoted clubs, Swansea and QPR, are joint-top for clean sheets with four apiece- Brendan Rodgers’ side, in particular, have shown a consistency at home and have yet to concede at the Liberty Stadium. Of last season’s top six, only Man City have looked strong at the back and have also picked up four clean sheets.
Chelsea’s high-pressing game under Andre Villas-Boas has so far made them susceptible at the back and have returned just a single clean sheet- a fact that is reflected in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) “Transfers Out” this week- Jose Bosingwa has been sold on by almost 71,000 managers at the time of writing, more than any other Fantasy player in the lead up to gameweek ten.
Managers are faced with a dilemma, then; do we downgrade the pricier options at the back and use the spare budget higher up the pitch or do we keep faith in the big-hitters and pray that defences will tighten up as the season unfolds?
In today’s second Members article, we analyse some of the low-budget defensive options, priced at 4.5 or under in the FPL game, using the Opta Team stats and the Season Ticker as a guide…
