A cut-price favourite in his debut season for Swansea, Ben Davies established himself as a first-team regular after an unfortunate injury to Neil Taylor in the third game of 2012/13. The latter sustained a serious ankle break in the early stages of a 2-2 home draw with Sunderland and was stretchered off the pitch, allowing Davies to nail down a starting spot in Michael Laudrup’s first season in charge of the Welsh outfit.
The Statistics
With Swansea’s main defensive assets starting in the mid-price bracket after a superb campaign under Brendan Rodgers, Davies’ budget appeal attracted plenty attention across the Fantasy games. Costing 4.0 in Fantasy Premier League (FPL), the youngster afforded a route into a backline that had previously returned 13 clean sheets and, from Gameweek 4 onwards, embarked on a run of 33 starts in 35 league fixtures under the Dane.
Over the course of the campaign, Davies produced a goal, a couple of assists and six bonus points for the Welsh club – with eight clean sheets also accrued, he racked up 99 points – just a point behind 5.0 priced Ashley Williams for the Swans.
The left-back was joint-eighth best value defender for the season, with only three sub 5.0 priced options – West Ham’s Joey O’Brien (25.6) and Norwich duo Russell Martin (22.9) and Seb Bassong (22.8) – outdoing Davies’ 22.5 points per Fantasy pound. As a result, Davies ended the season in over 10.4% of FPL teams, with his cost rising as high as 4.7 before dropping to 4.4 as the campaign came to a close.
The Prospects
After spending the vast majority of the season on the sidelines, Taylor’s return towards the tail end means Davies is likely to find guaranteed game time difficult next term. With the former appearing in three of Swansea’s last five league fixtures, he’s set to come into contention once again after Laudrup eased him tentatively back into the first-team fold. Indeed, with the club set to take part in European competition after clinching the Capital One cup back in March, Laudrup gave an indication earlier this week that both players are likely to garner plenty opportunity over the upcoming campaign:
“It’s a beautiful problem to have. A positive, rather than a negative. I hope we end up playing more than 50 matches next season, because of our Europa League commitments to go with the Premier League and the domestic cup competitions. So the truth is I need the pair of them because you can’t expect just one to feature non-stop in each of those matches. It’s a fantastic problem for me to have as manager, two very talented left-footed left-backs vying for a place in the team. Neil was so very unlucky with his injury, but let’s not forget what a very good player he also is.”
Frustratingly, then, Taylor and Davies look set to alternate across all competitions as the Swans attempt to battle on four fronts. Furthermore, with a price increase across the Fantasy games also on the cards, the two factors that made Davies such an appealing option for our five man backlines will be no more in 2013/14.
With a downturn in defensive resilience under Laudrup, in addition to rumours of a move away for Ashley Williams, Fantasy managers will approach the Swansea defence with a little more trepidation for the following campaign. Angel Rangel remains the most appealing defensive asset for the Swans next time out, with the Spaniard (very) occasionally fielded on the right of the attacking midfield three, though Michel Vorm could come into our consideration if he drops in price after an injury-hit second term at the Liberty. With no room for sentiment in Fantasy football, Davies, meanwhile, is likely to be banished to memory as managers quickly target the promoted sides as a source of cut-price squad fillers.
