Mendy creativity could make him essential Man City defender

Benjamin Mendy (£6.0m) has the potential to be the go-to Manchester City defensive option in 2018/19 after his comeback from long-term injury.

The Frenchman was ruled out for most of last season after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in Gameweek 6, but is fit and ready to go for the new campaign, at a cheaper price than colleagues Nicolas Otamendi (£6.5m) and Kyle Walker (£6.5m).

We’ve gone over the data to find out whether Fantasy Premier League managers can expect to see the Mendy who registered eight assists in 25 league matches and seven Champions League appearances prior to signing for Man City.

CREATIVE GENIUS

Mendy’s start to the 2017/18 demonstrated his huge creative potential. In the first five Gameweeks of last season, before his Gameweek 6 injury, only Premier League four defenders created more chances than the Frenchman, all of them with more starts under their belt in that period. The Frenchman fashioned seven opportunities in 270 minutes, Jose Holebas (£4.5m) eight in 360, Aaron Cresswell (£5.5m) nine in 369, Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.0m) nine in 269 and Ben Davies (£6.0m) 13 in 350.

In fact, only three Man City players created more than Mendy, David Silva (£8.5m) with 17 chances in five starts, Kevin De Bruyne (£10.0m) with 15 in five and Sergio Aguero (£11.0) with 12 in four. And despite making just seven appearances in the entire campaign, just De Bruyne and Leroy Sané (£9.5m) registered more successful crosses from open play than Mendy’s eight, with 14 and nine respectively.

Adding a further three appearances after a Gameweek 34 return, Mendy created nine chances and had five shots on goal in 361 minutes across the season as a whole. That averaged out at a key pass every 40.1 minutes, the next best in the City defence was Walker with one every 92.9. Furthermore, his shot every 72.2 minutes was the second-best in the City defence, with Danilo’s (£5.5m) 70.6 coming out on top.

DEFENSIVE RETURNS

On top of Mendy’s impressive creative potential is his ability to keep a healthy number of clean sheets. No side conceded fewer goals than Man City’s 27 last season and only Manchester United recorded more clean sheets, their total of 19 just one better than the Citizens’ 18.

Pep Guardiola’s champions sit top of our season ticker for defence in the opening six Gameweeks so shutouts should be expected. After a tricky trip to Arsenal in Gameweek 1, Huddersfield, Newcastle and Fulham are all set to visit the Etihad Stadium with trips to Wolves and Cardiff in Gameweeks 3 and 6 respectively.

ON THE MENDY

Mendy will be ahead in his pre-season development compared to everybody else. Even though he only registered 40 minutes in Russia, the training he did there with France was effectively his pre-season and because he missed so much time with the injury, his body and mind should be in a position to head back to training with his club and then competitive action without feeling burned out.

ROTATION FREE (FOR NOW)

Mendy was brought to Man City last season to be the first-choice left-back and the Frenchman looks set to make that position his own, especially in the early weeks of 2018/19. The late returns to training of Danilo and Fabian Delph (£5.5m) means that the only cover for the left of defence will be Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.0m), who may not be at the club anymore by Gameweek 1 with transfer reports linking him elsewhere. Those factors should ensure very little rotation on Mendy’s part to begin with, as he is already with the main training group in the USA.

Read more with Scout

Visit our PRE-SEASON PAGE to get the latest pointers from pre-season friendlies and read scout reports on new players by CLICKING HERE.

Pick your FPL team for 2018/19 using our list of best available players, sorted for your convenience by position and price:

Goalkeepers | Defenders: Budget | Defenders: Mid-Price and Premium | Midfielders: Budget | Midfielders: Mid-Price | Midfielders: Premium

Also check out our detailed statistical analysis articles on every team comparing data for the last two seasons to highlight the players to sign and the players to avoid:

Arsenal | Bournemouth | Brighton & Hove Albion | Burnley | Cardiff City | Chelsea | Crystal Palace | Everton | Fulham | Huddersfield Town | Leicester City | Liverpool | Manchester City | Manchester United | Newcastle United

Read them all in one place

Become a Member and access our data

Memberships for the 2018/19 campaign are now available for the pre-season price of just £12.50. This will increase to the regular price of £15 after the first Gameweek of the season.

Join now to get the following:

• Plot your transfer strategies using the fully interactive Season Ticker.
• Get projections for every Premier League player provided by the Rate My Team statistical model.
• Use Rate My Team throughout the season to guide your selections and transfers.
• Get access to over 130+ exclusive members articles over the season.
• Analyse our OPTA-powered statistic tables specifically tailored for Fantasy Football Managers.
• Use our exclusive tool to build custom stats tables from over 100 OPTA player and team stats.
• View heatmaps and expected goals data for every player.
• Use our powerful comparison tool to analyse players head-to-head.

CLICK HERE TO BECOME A FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT MEMBER