Is James Tarkowski the new Trent Alexander-Arnold? Is Moises Caicedo the new Jarrod Bowen?
Probably not but the new rule change that came in this morning will unquestionably shake up Fantasy Premier League (FPL) in 2025/26.
Defensive midfielders will no longer be complete afterthoughts, while many centre-halves now have the edge over full-backs from the same side.
And while FPL itself isn’t live and we await the all-important pricing, you can begin your defensive contribution research today…
In our Members Area, you’ll be able to find all the relevant defensive contribution data from 2024/25 (and indeed every season going back to 2011/12!).
This is the Opta data that FPL will be using in their calculations in 2025/26 – and we’ll be housing it next season, too.
HOW TO FIND THE DEFENSIVE CONTRIBUTION DATA
In the Player Stats section of our Members Area, you’ll be able to choose from Goalkeepers, Defenders, Midfielders, Forwards, All Players and Outfield Players.
Taking Defenders as an example, the tab we want to access is, unsurprisingly, called ‘Defending’ – as seen in green below.

The big two we want for defenders are Clearances, Blocks and Interceptions (CBI) and Tackles Won. These are highlighted below:

Clicking on each stat sorts the players from highest to lowest (clicking again goes from low to high).
If you so wish, you can filter by home matches, away matches, Gameweek range and more:

For midfielders and forwards, Rec (eg recoveries) is also relevant:

CUSTOM STATS TABLES
If you wish to completely filter out the less relevant stuff (such as aerial duels), you can create your own custom stats tables.
Scoutcast alumni Joe has done that already today with tables you can view on defenders and midfielders.
COMING SOON…
If you’re after something less data-heavy, we’ve got just the thing coming very, very soon.
Our Defensive Contributions (DC) widget will make this easier to process. Here’s a sneak preview…

- READ MORE: How do Opta define a block?
- READ MORE: How do Opta define a clearance?
- READ MORE: How do Opta define an interception?
- READ MORE: How do Opta define a tackle?
- READ MORE: How do Opta define a recovery?


