The 2019/20 FPL season has finally come to an end, and we are now all eagerly anticipating the launch of the 2020/21 season. We know which players excelled in FPL point scoring last season. However, we want to look beyond just goals and assists. This series of articles will do just that, by analysing the underlying stats of defenders, midfielders and forwards.
To start, let’s look at the defenders.
Shots:
Unsurprisingly, Trent Alexander-Arnold topped all defenders for shots last season with 45. Some way behind TAA was Matt Doherty with 33 shots, and Harry Maguire, Virgil van Dijk and Lewis Dunk all with 31 shots.
Topping defenders for shot frequency however was Marcos Alonso, who took 1 shot every 47.6 minutes. In comparison, TAA’s shot frequency was 1 every 70.5 minutes.
Despite TAA clearly taking the most shots out of all defenders, he was not so dominant in the shots on target department, with only 13. Virgil van Dijk finished with 15 shots on target, while Yerry Mina registered 11 shots on target and Lewis Dunk 10. In fact, out of the top 16 defenders for shots on target last season, TAA and Marcos Alonso were the only fullbacks in there. This really demonstrates the increased goal scoring threat that centre backs offer, largely due to their aerial ability from set pieces.
This fact is reinforced when delving into the big chances missed stats for defenders. Romain Saïss (2 goals) led defenders for big chances missed last season with 5. Close behind him was Harry Maguire (1 goal) and Lewis Dunk (3 goals), each with 4 big chances missed. Indeed, out of the 29 defenders to miss more than 2 big chances last season, 21 of them were centre backs.
Chances Created:
As expected, Trent Alexander-Arnold (15 assists) created the most chances out of all defenders last season with 87 (1 every 36.06 minutes). The only other defenders with 50+ chances created last season were Lucas Digne (8 assists) with 73 key passes (1 every 41.5 minutes), and Andy Robertson (12 assists) with 61 key passes (1 every 51.0 minutes). Surprisingly, out of the other defenders to record more than 5 assists last season, Matt Doherty (8 assists), Serge Aurier (7 assists) and César Azpilicueta (6 assists) were all quite underwhelming from a creative viewpoint, only creating 22, 33 and 45 chances respectively. Other players to mention who had reasonable creative seasons are Marcos Alonso (1 chance created every 57.16 minutes) and Ben Chilwell (1 chance created every 67.8 minutes). Players such as Aaron Wan-Bissaka (1 chance created every 122.8 minutes) and Kyle Walker (1 chance created every 132.9 minutes) both struggled to creative goal scoring chances.
Crosses/Final Third Passes:
The Liverpool fullbacks Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold were the two most involved final third defenders last season, making 639 and 540 final third passes respectively. Despite not dominating from a creative standpoint, Kyle Walker (506 passes), César Azpilicueta (447) and Aaron Wan-Bissaka (422) were the next most involved defenders in the final third. Although he missed a large chunk of the season through injury, Ricardo Pereira was also quite involved in the final third, making 15 attacking passes per game.
TAA and Lucas Digne dominated for successful crosses last season whipping in 81 and 72 respectively. The next highest amount of successful crosses was 44 by Diego Rico (who has now been relegated), and 41 by Andy Robertson.
Defending:
In the tackling department, Aaron Wan-Bissaka (129) and Ricardo Pereira (119) were the most prolific last season. Serge Aurier (93), César Azpilicueta (86), Chris Basham (85), Djibril Sidibé (83), Ryan Fredericks (82), Frédéric Guilbert (74) and Lucas Digne (73) were the only other defenders to make 70+ tackles.
James Tarkowski was the only defender to make 200 clearances last season, followed closely by Jan Bednarek (193), Tyrone Mings (189), Federico Fernández (185), Jonny Evans (171) and Toby Alderweireld (170). Popular defenders Virgil van Dijk and Harry Maguire made 162 and 157 clearances respectively.
Diego Rico made the most interceptions with 84, while Chris Basham (77), Jan Bednarek (77), Harry Maguire (72), César Azpilicueta (67), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (66) and James Tarkowski (63) also were prolific in intercepting the ball.
The defenders who blocked the most shots were Tyrone Mings (48) and James Tarkowski (47), while David Luiz (37), Lewis Dunk (33), Toby Alderweireld (32), Angelo Ogbonna (32), Ben Mee (31) and Nathan Aké (29) also ranked highly in this category.
Defenders lose points in the bonus point system for errors leading to shots, as well as fouls committed. Davison Sanchez (5) made the most errors leading to a shot on goal, while James Tarkowski (4) and Jonny Evans (4) also slipped up a few times. In terms of fouls, James Tarkowski (49) committed the most fouls of any defender, while Ricardo Pereira (45), Lucas Digne (43), Romain Saïss (43), Serge Aurier (41) and César Azpilicueta (40) were the only other defenders to commit 40+ fouls.
Bonus Points:
Due to their high attacking output, TAA (24) and Andy Robertson (20) picked up the most bonus points among defenders last season.
When looking at the BPS, centre backs tended to do better than fullbacks, with 7 out of the 11 top BPS scoring defenders playing in central defence. Yet, out of the 23 defenders to score 10+ bonus points last season, only 8 were centre backs. This is most likely due to the ability of fullbacks to pick up regular attacking stats as well as clean sheets.
Nailing the correct budget defenders is crucial to FPL success. When picking cheap defenders from lowly ranked teams, centre backs appear to be the way to go. Out of the top 10 <£5.0 defenders for bonus points last season, 8 were centre backs. The only 2 fullbacks were Diego Rico and Erik Pieters, and between them, they only managed to pick up bonus points 5 times in games without a goal/assist. Thus, while fullbacks are generally better options due to their attacking upside, lowly ranked teams score less goals, meaning that fullbacks will pick up less assists. Coming under heavy defensive pressure, centre backs have a lot of work to do clearing the ball and making blocks, which bodes well for bonus points. So, when bottom half sides picked up clean sheets last season, the centre backs tended to get more bonus points.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for our analysis of the underlying stats of midfielders.