Community: Five Man Defence
Going for a five man defence in FPL is a pre season trend once more.
The debate has been rife, with the emergence of many premium Fantasy Premier League defence options for the 2019/20 season.
1. Andy
The defence discussion started early on the Who Got The Assist? podcast, with Let’s Talk FPL Andy producing an entertaining graph to chart the trend in each FPL pre-season.
Listening to the most recent @WGTA_FPL podcast.
I wonder if the big at the back twitter mention trend will differ this year with Liverpool etc.
Usually the number of daily twitter mentions within the FPL community for it looks something like this ? pic.twitter.com/mmwM61ccAA
— Andy (@LetsTalk_FPL) June 10, 2019
2. General
The stakes are much higher now though, with high profile managers like FPL General backing the defence strategy. He’s developed an entertaining way of justifying his plans!
There's big at the back and there's BIG AT THE BACK.
I think I like it. pic.twitter.com/px7ROhXpMu
— FPL General (@FPLGeneral) July 5, 2019
I feel much better about it when I look at it upside down. pic.twitter.com/jlrgpzGUsW
— FPL General (@FPLGeneral) July 6, 2019
3. Fly
Despite the hype, FPL Fly is the voice of reason, reminding the FPL Community of why this tactic is generally perceived to be a bad idea. Don’t say you weren’t warned!
Playing a fantasy game and relying on clean sheets with the odd attacking involvement is shit.
Fantasy is all about hat tricks and regular goals. That’s what gets the blood pumping.
You might just as well log off and play Fantasy Knitting.
Fin.
— GadFly* ? (@FPL_Fly) July 6, 2019
4. Neil
Neil Murray has been leading the discussion on Twitter of playing a five man defence. He’s provided numerous threads and talking points to advocate his decision making.
If you're planning 5 at the back then you need to fully commit, meaning:
❌ 4.5M rotation
❌ In fact, no suitable options below 5.5M work for this strategy
✅ Must have REAL attacking threatSo, we're choosing from just 16 candidates imo (covered here): https://t.co/nsrF6RU17i
— Neil Murray #FPL (@roneildinho) July 5, 2019
Crucial to “big at the back” strategy is attacking points from defence.
Here’s who scored 7+ attacking returns (goals & assists combined) in 18/19:
TAA (14)
Robbo (12)
Doherty (11)
Pereira (10)
Ritchie (10)
Holebas (10)
Alonso (10)
Digne (9)
VVD (8)
Azpi (7)
Kola (7)
Duffy (7)— Neil Murray #FPL (@roneildinho) July 2, 2019
A criticism of 5 at the back is less captaincy options (assuming you don't want to captain defenders).
In theory, I accept this, however in practice I only captained around 7 players all of last season and around 90% of the time went Aguero/Salah.
2 strong options is enough.
— Neil Murray #FPL (@roneildinho) July 4, 2019
5. Hopcroft
Adam Hopcroft has crunched the numbers on the PPM metric from last season. Interestingly enough, its a five man defence which allows for the best overall total: it can provide balance!
Best Points Per Match 11
Budget £82.5m (no bench)
My best effort 5-3-2:
Gunn 3.9ppm £4.5m
TAA 6.4 £7m
VVD 5.5 £6.5m
Robertson 5.9 £7m
Alonso 5.2 £6.5m
Laporte 5.1 £6.5m
Sterling 6.9 £12m
Perez 4.4* £6.5m
Zaha 4.8* £7m
Wilson 5.6 £8m
Kane 5.7 £11mTotal 59.4 ppm
*pos change— Adam Hopcroft (@ahopcroft13) July 7, 2019
6. Hints
Twitter legend, FPL Hints, has done some experimentation in the strategy to analyse the knock on effect of the rest of our squads. Compromises in attack have to be made.
The options below are probably the strongest '#5ManDefence' teams that you can assemble on @OfficialFPL at the moment to the point where Rashford is forced onto the bench with the left option and the right option has the same defence but different attacking options.
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/MvWI1D0DA4
— Chief @FPLHINTS (Ash) ?? (@FPLHints) July 4, 2019
7. Don’t Take The L
Interestingly when looking at ownership, the most owned players fit into a 5-3-2 formation shortly after the game launch. The exact figures have changed since this tweet but the fact still stands.
The CURRENT most owned players in FPL:
GK??Alisson 29.1%
DEF???????Robertson 38.2%
DEF??Van Dijk 37.2%
DEF???????Wan-Bissaka 34.1%
DEF???????TAA 30.9%
DEF??Digne 27.5%
MID??Salah 38.3%
MID??Zaha 35.3%
MID??B Silva 31.1%
FWD??Jimenez 46.2%
FWD???????Wilson 27.8%How many are in your team?!
— FPDontTakeTheL (@FPDontTakeTheL) June 30, 2019
8. Physio
So, how does all this talk of defence and formations filter down into the FPL Community? It’s a more conservative 4-42 leading at the moment, after over 1,000 votes.
Let’s talk formations!
Would love to get your opinions on why you are currently going with a certain formation. #FPL???
— Tom (#FPL Physio) (@FPL_physio) July 6, 2019
9. March
Some big names are bucking the trend though, with former Fantasy Premier League 2014/15 Champion a big advocate! Surely if he believes he can make it work then the rest of us are in with a shout?
I’M gOinG fIvE aT thE BaCk thIS seAsON.
— Simon March (@MarchSimon) June 29, 2019
10. Fix
The algorithm at Fantasy Football Fix has been working it’s magic to analyse formation trends of top managers. There’s been a shift, but a five man defence may be a bridge too far.
The 3-4-3 formation has traditionally been the most favoured in FPL, and it was the same in 2018/19 as well
However, the majority of teams across all 3 user groups preferred to operate with only 2 forwards, a big change from the 2017/18 seasonhttps://t.co/0VHUnBFjCK pic.twitter.com/lc3BHP9FCV
— Fantasy Football Fix (@FantasyFootyFix) July 5, 2019
BEFORE YOU GO… Be sure to check out the rest of our Community XI pre-season series:
—> Community XI: 11 Players for Fantasy Premier League 2019/20
