Best Budget Defenders to consider for the upcoming 2020/21 FPL season!

This blog is written by @fplgrillen
If you want all the exciting premium attackers you have come to the right place, here’s a list of my favorite cheap FPL defenders (4.5 – 5Mil) to consider ahead of the new season.

Best FPL Budget Defenders for 2020/21 FPL Season

1. Ruben Vinagre – 4.5 Mil – Wolves 

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With Johnny out injured for 6 months the 21 year old becomes nailed on for the attacking wingback role in a defensively solid Wolves. After the restart Wolves had one if not the best defense in the league. 

Cleansheets: 5 (2nd) 
Goals conceded: 6 (2nd) 
xGC: 6.4 (1st) 
Big Chances Conceded: 6 (1st) 
Shots conceded in box: 49 (1st)

Vinagre had 16 appearances and 6 starts this season but I fully expect him to play plenty of more minutes with the injury of Johnny. We can clearly see on his heat map that he has been getting forward a lot, unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to produce very great stats but that’s also due to his limited minutes.

Despite not getting an assist or a goal he still has some attacking threat. He has only had 5 shots but the good part is that every one of them has been in the box so even though his xG was 0.11 he still posses some decent goal threat. With 5 KP, 3 BCC, and an xA of 1.38 I really believe that he’ll get a couple of assists as well. 

Read More: Best FPL assets to consider from promoted teams ahead of 20/21 FPL season

2. Kyle Walker-Peters – 4.5 Mil- Southampton

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KWP is once again a very attacking fullback, like the other ones he doesn’t shoot much, only 2 shots and an xG of 0.06. After the restart, he also got 1 assist, 4 KP, 2 BCC, and 0.94 xA. His PPG after the restart was 2.9 and his xPPG was 4.2 despite 3 of his 9 appearances being from the bench. 

Southampton have actually been looking decent at the back after the restart keeping 3CS (joint 5th). They only conceded 8 goals (5th) and 98 shots (7th) despite them having nothing to play for during most games. With the signing of Mohammed Salisu who was quality in La Liga, I can see the Southampton defense providing great value.

Read More: Best FPL assets to consider from promoted teams ahead of 20/21 FPL season

3. Reece James – 5.0 Mil – Chelsea

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Another exciting player for next season is Reece James imo, if he’s nailed on he could be a very underrated choice. We know that he’s very attacking and likes to overlap his heatmap confirms that as well. Last season he put in lots of crosses (109) which ranks him 11th among all defender despite only playing around 1500 minutes, the rest in the top 11 all played at least 2700 minutes.

The good part is that he likes to cross and will get into even more crossing opportunities next season but the problem is that the quality isn’t the best. Out of all his 109 crosses, only 26 of them has been successful although most of us will admit that TAA is an incredible crosser, his percentage of successful crosses is 21% and James is actually 24% so if he gets more game time and therefore putting in more crosses I think he could be a quality asset.

Even though Pulisic, Werner, and Ziyech aren’t great in the air I still think he’ll bag some assists especially if Havertz signs since he’s an aerial threat but also because crosses don’t necessarily have to be scored by a header. No one in the Liverpool front three is a very big aerial threat but Robbo and TAA still rack up the assists from crosses.  

His stats also confirms his attacking potential:

Shots: 18 
In box: 6 
BC: 0 
Goals: 0
xG: 0.68
KP: 25
BCC: 6 
Assists: 2 xA: 3.4

He only played 24 games and didn’t get a lot of points. Only 61 (2.5 PPG) but his xPts were very high as well, 109 (4.5 PPG). 

The problem is that Chelsea aren’t great defensively so I would be cautious to buy him if Chelsea doesn’t sign some defenders and a new GK.

4&5. Stuart Dallas/Luke Ayling – 4.5 Mil – Leeds

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I believe that both Stuart Dallas and Luke Ayling will be quality FPL defenders for the upcoming season. I think that Leeds will be good defensively for this season, I won’t go in detail on why since I’ll post a longer text on that later this week so look out for that!

Here are their attacking stats last season:

Games: 34 vs 44
Minutes: 3176 vs 3933
Goals: 4 vs 4
Assists: 4 vs 3
Shots per game: 0.7 vs 1.3
Key passes per game: 0.8 vs 0.9
Big chances created: 8 vs 11
Big chances missed: 0 vs 7

As we see they’re very attacking and I think they’ll provide great value for money as FPL defenders.

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Read More: Best FPL assets to consider from promoted teams ahead of 20/21 FPL season

6. Tariq Lamptey – 4.5 – Brighton & Hove Albion

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Once again we have a very attacking fullback at 4.5.

Lamptey plays for Brighton has been decent at the back after the restart. Nothing special but kept 3 CS after the restart (joint 5th) despite playing all the top 4 teams. With the signing of Joel Veltmann and the return of Ben White, I think their defense will improve a lot during this season.

Lamptey seems to have taken the RWB position in Potters team and has started in Brightons last 8 games. His goal threat isn’t that high with just 2 shots and 0.05 xG. Although I think he’ll bag some assists, in just 8 games he got 1 assist, 6 KP, 3 BCC, and 1.36 xA. His PPG was 3.1 although his xPts would’ve gotten him 4.2 PPG which is solid for a defender.

7. James Justin – 4.5 Mil – Leicester City

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Once again a very nice heatmap even though he only played 10 games. Leicester also kept 3 CS after the break (joint 5th), although the rest defensive stats was very average. But with Ricardo Perriera still injured Justin is nailed to start and I think he’ll get you some decent returns. 

He’s a very attacking fullback, with 7 shots with 4 of them being the box. Despite not getting an assist he played 10 KP and had an xA of 0.46. His PPG was 2.8 and his xPPG was 4.3.

Read More: MJ’s column | FPL 2019/20 Season Review & Lessons Learnt Complete FPL Guide from the man who finished with an OR of 148

8. Charlie Taylor/Erik Pieters/Phil Bardsley – 4.5 Mil – Burnley

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Don’t have to say much on them, 4.5 million and you’re getting a free ticket into the Dyche and Pope defense who loves a clean sheet more than I love my family. Taylor has been injured but before he was 1st choice but it’s hard to tell who’ll start at left-back but hopefully they play some friendlies and we can get a good indication on who to get.

On some occasions Pieters has been playing left mid and has better underlying stats, if all of them play I would pick Pieters but the important thing is to pick the one who’ll start to get those clean sheets.

Pieters vs Taylor Stats after the break:

Minutes: 643 vs 570 
Goals: 0 vs 0 
xG: 0.37 vs 0.00 
Shots: 7 vs 0 
Assists: 2 vs 1 
xA: 1.14 vs 0.07 
KP: 8 vs 2 
BCC: 2 vs 0

Read More: Best FPL assets to consider from promoted teams ahead of 20/21 FPL season

9. Luke Shaw – 5.0 Mil – Manchester United

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A very underrated FPL asset and he’ll most likely be a big differential. I think he’ll be overlooked despite playing for a solid defensive team and being very attacking. For last season he was injured for some parts and only played 24 games racking up 67 points. That’s not amazing, only 2.8 PPG, on the other hand, his xPts was 110 which would have resulted in 4.6 PPG, and if he had kept that xPts all season without injury he would’ve had 174 points (4th highest defender).

After the restart United have been solid at the back

CS: 5 (2nd) 
GC: 6 (2nd) 
xGC: 7.94 (2nd)
BCC: 7 (2nd) 
SiBC: 51 (3rd)

His heat map is solid and his attacking stats are also very good.

Shots: 11 
In box: 6 
BC: 1  
Goals: 0 
xG: 1.27 
KP: 20 
BCC: 1 
Assists: 0 
xA: 1.46

If Luke Shaw is fit and United have decent fixtures I think he could give you some solid returns!

Budget FPL Defenders Ranking ahead of 2020/21 FPL Season: 

These are the best cheap defender in my opinion, most of them play for defensively solid teams and are quite attacking. Of course, the cheap defenders are very much relying on fixtures so it’s hard to rank them but without fixtures, this would be my ranking!

1. Ruben Vinagre 
2. Luke Ayling/ Stuart Dallas 
3. Luke Shaw (if fit) 
4. Charlie Taylor/Eric Pieters/ Phil Bardsley 
5. Kyle Walker-Peters 
6. Reece James (if no new signings) 
7. Tariq Lamptey 
8. James Justin 

Thank you for reading my first blog here on AllAboutFPL about FPL defenders. To see more of my work make sure to check out my twitter! @FPL_Grillen

Further read ahead of 2020/21 Season: 

The game for next season has launched so does our content, check out some of our best so far, and stay tuned for more.

Best FPL assets to consider from promoted teams ahead of 20/21 FPL season
MJ’s column | FPL 2019/20 Season Review & Lessons Learnt Complete FPL Guide from the man who finished with an OR of 148
History Of Fantasy Football And Origin Of FPL
Meet World.No. 16- Dave King Discussing About His Remarkable FPL Season

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