This article is part of our Fantasy Premier League Rankings series.
Clean sheets continue to be the easiest way for defenders to score fantasy points in most season-long formats, but attacking exploits are what we're always after, especially for players who are on teams likely to finish with a high number of shutouts. Many fantasy managers automatically turn to fullbacks because they generally attack more in the run of play, but it's worth recognizing that center-backs score more goals, mostly off set pieces.
In the Premier League's official fantasy game, an assist is worth three points but a defender goal is worth twice that, as well as two points more than a clean sheet. So, for every dumb goal that Chris Smalling scored last season (he had four), you'd need twice as many assists to match that fantasy-point total. As it was, no defender finished with eight assists, with West Ham's Aaron Cresswell leading the league with seven (Chelsea's Cesar Azpilicueta, Tottenham's Ben Davies and Manchester City's Kyle Walker each finished one behind). So while we want to focus on clean sheets and open-play attacking opportunities, don't forget about the guys who can actually put the ball in the back of the net.
The World Cup was a fun time, but it threw a giant wrench into the rankings process because many regular starters won't be on the pitch to start the season after their delayed returns to their clubs. As a result, players who didn't participate in the World Cup, or at least those who didn't play much, may get an extra bump in fantasy upside simply because they're going to play more minutes this season. Additionally, many are returning to shared roles, so while they may be a top-five player if they were guaranteed at least 34 starts, we need to knock them down because of the playing-time uncertainty (sorry, Kieran).
Finally, I've ranked everyone as if the team they are on today is the team they'll play for this season. I'll continue to update as transfers occur, but I don't want to rank off transfer speculation.
As always, if you have any comments or feedback, please feel free to comment below or in our Slack chat, which is available to all RotoWire subscribers. If you're a member and haven't joined the chat, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter (@RotoWireAndrew) and we'll get you hooked up.
Note: rankings are based on the Premier League's official fantasy game.
