Bargain FPL Options – Defenders – Fantasy Football Tips

Welcome to the pre-season fantasy football tips series “Bargain FPL options”, the four-piece series where we find the fantasy football bargains for all positions. If you missed the first Bargain FPL options piece on  goalkeepers, you can find it here.

It’s well known that most fantasy football points are scored from the outfield positions and having an expensive defender isn’t always necessary. These five bargain FPL options should provide a solid point count and leave you a nice chunk of cash for the more important positions.

Danny Simpson (Leicester City, 4.5m)

Dany Simpson has a 5.7% ownership and I am not surprised considering you could be looking at a starting full back for a top half team for just 4.5m. He wasn’t the same player last season as he was in Leicester’s title winning campaign in 2015/16, and he’ll be looking to rediscover that form for the upcoming season. Simpson is one of many Manchester United Academy graduates and is joined at Leicester by Danny Drinkwater who also was once a the Manchester club.

The Englishman got 85 points last season in FPL, which was a big downgrade on his 120 points the season beforehand. He kept 9 clean sheets, many of which came in the second half of the season, after Ranieri was sacked and Shakespeare turned things around.

Simpson and Leicester do have potential this season which is why I have selected him as an FPL bargain. I’m not expecting Leicester to replicate the miracle of 2015/16, but I do believe they can secure a top half finish and see Simpson bag over a century of points once again.

Cedric Soares (Southampton, 5.0m)

Cedric Soares is selected by 14.2% of FPL manager and is a bargain at just 5.0m. Southampton’s new manager Mauricio Pellegrino will sure up the Southampton defence which evidently will help Cedric gain more FPL points. Despite getting just over a century of points last season, I believe he can excel this season and be a must have to every FPL team.

Cedric and Southampton also have a very favourable set of opening fixtures which makes the Portuguese defender more tempting to select. He was initially a doubt for the first game against Swansea, but has featured in a couple of the Saints’ pre season matches to calm the nerves of his owners.

Also, it is a World Cup year, so Cedric will have that extra motivation to go and perform for the Saints and grab a place on the plane to Russia.

Charlie Daniels (Bournemouth, 5.0m)

Charlie Daniels is selected by more than a fifth of FPL managers which is emphatic for a Bournemouth defender. His 21.7% ownership makes him the second most picked defender, just behind David Luiz. The main reason as to his high ownership is because the left back was the 7th highest point scorer last season in the defender category.

He scored an impressive 4 times and provided 3 assists in a great season for the Englishman. He also has an outstanding disciplinary record for a defender. He was booked just once in 3,000 minutes of football for the Cherries.

Bournemouth have an interesting start to the season. They start off with two, more than winnable games against West Brom and Watford, but then face up against two top six sides in Manchester City and Arsenal. This may mean Daniels will have to be deployed in a rotation strategy.

Victor Lindelof (Manchester United, 5.5m)

Victor Lindelof has an ownership on FPL of 9.7%, which in my opinion is very surprising. The Swedish international is the cheapest way to squeeze a Manchester United defender into your FPL team. His 5.5m price tag could be a bargain, if Manchester United are going to have the season some people are expecting.

There is a hint of doubt that the £39 million signing will not start and Jose Mourinho will give the nod to Phil Jones or Chris Smalling, who have that Premier League experience that Lindelof lacks. But surely Mourinho wouldn’t spend that amount of money for a reserve central defender?

The 23 year old kept an astonishing 23 clean sheets for club and country last season, scoring 2 goals in the process. Also, a lot like Daniels, his disciplinary record is great, the central defender picked up just 2 yellow cards in 46 appearances.

Kieran Trippier (Tottenham, 5.5m)

Kieran Trippier is another very popular pick at a 17.4% ownership which makes him the fifth most picked defender in the game. The Fantasy Premier League Potential of Trippier came to light, with the departure of Kyle Walker to Manchester City, which enabled a starting place for the former Burnley man.

His 5.5m price is a bargain as the wing backs at Tottenham really like to go forward and on a bigger pitch at Wembley he could have that extra room to make more magic happen. However it could work against him as he may not be able to cover as much ground up and back.

There are question marks of his injury status as the Englishman was spotted leaving Wembley on crutches after sustaining an injury in Spurs’ friendly against Italian side Juventus. Even if Trippier doesn’t make it, his team mate Ben Davies can become a bargain himself as the Welsh international is price equally at 5.5m.

Written by Harry Clark (@HarryClark67)

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