You may raise a toast for us as we help you raise ‘The Great Wall of FPL’ with some ‘premium’ budget picks. In both FPL and life, pricy options don’t necessarily guarantee great results. There are more factors which contribute to their success or sustainability than the respective price tags.
Yes, Trent Alexander Arnold(£7.2m) is known to deliver points week in and week out. But he pinches a big hole in your pocket. Also, he has missed out on clean sheets more often than before in the ongoing campaign.
Then you have the likes of Gvardiol and Virgil van Dijk, all in the range of £6m. Again, these are costly stuff that may backfire easily.
Hence, a full defensive lineup of three budget defenders allows you to break the bank for players of your choice in the attacking third. These days the number of clean sheets has taken a severe plunge, calling for some plan B. However, it won’t be wise to use more than three defenders as having a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 seems the best bet in FPL 2024-25.
Brick No. 1 – Antonee Robinson (£5m)
The Fulham left-back, who has been playing out of position in the recent gameweeks much higher up the pitch, should be one of the first names you should write in your notebook.
Robinson is a great option when it comes to securing attacking returns. With clean sheets turning a difficult route to points, this becomes a cool avenue to navigate for extra points.
With an ownership of more than 25%, Robinson is now high in demand. He has already amassed 67 points and is eyeing big in the next two fixtures which seem easy peasy — against West Ham United and Leicester City in GW21 and GW22 respectively.
Fulham somehow manages to score goals every week and Robinson finds himself in the link-up as he has already got three assists. He is a great attacking prospect in the game, having created four big chances already.
Brick No.2 – Ola Aina(£5.2m)
None expected Ola Aina to be the highest scoring defender in the game after 20 gameweeks! This is how crazy FPL could be.
Aina, who enjoys the top spot with 95pts, can flex as many as eight clean sheets (compared to 2 by Robinson). Though the Nottingham Forest defender lacks assists to his name, he is credited with two goals in this campaign.
With Matz Sels in red-hot form and the Forest defense looking pretty solid, Aina can continue to rope in points from the clean sheet while adding to the tally with smart attacking returns.
Ola Aina, who has scored 20 in the last three, will face Southampton and Bournemouth after the Liverpool hurdle in GW21.
Brick No.3 – Lewis Hall (£4.9m)
Lewis Hall appears to be the new Trippier of fantasy. And the boy makes it sweeter by costing less than £5m.
Having won the trust of 20% of the managers in FPL, Hall looks like the final piece of this budget defender puzzle. 42pts in the last five matches, with an xGI (expected goal involvements) of 0.20 per 90’ and xA (expected assists) of 0.18 per 90’ in the season, he is a must-own.
With Wolves (H), Bournemouth (H), Southampton (A), and Fulham (H) in the next four, things look lip-smacking for Hall.
