Unsettled Defences

[Hotstepper]

Seems to be a fair amount of teams with unsettled defences at the moment. Heading towards the last third of the season, I appear to be having cheap defender options swiped away from me constantly. Finding it hard to piece together a settled value for money defence with decent points potential and not spending too much of overall budget as a means of achieving certain starters. Differentials without game time risk not very easy to judge at the moment. In recent weeks, I've been hit by Spurs, Norwich and West Ham all playing around with their backlines, and it's not doing my hopes of recovering ground from my mid season slump much good.

For example -

Liverpool Clyne - Sakho/Skrtel/Lovren? - Moreno
Man City. Sagna/Zabaleta? - Otamendi - Mangala/Demichellis? - Kolarov/Clichy?
Man Utd. Who knows????
Norwich Pinto & Klose in... Do they start, and who with?
Southampton. Targett in for keeps or droppable just as quickly?
Spurs. Full backs rotatable at a moments notice, and now who replaces Vertonghen?
West Ham. Byram/Tomkins? - Ogbonna/Cresswell?

Anyone get thoughts on this?

[Vsz]

United - Smalling nailed. Blind pretty much nailed with Jones and others out, Darmian not far off being the same.

West Ham - not sure why you think Cresswell is unsettled?

[bentapp]

Not sure I'm clear on your question. By now it's fairly clear who the nailed on value picks (level of value debatable but regular starters with decent points anyway) are in defence I'd have thought? A few examples:

Dier
Moreno
Simpson
Dawson
Williams
Pieters
Cathcart
Fonte
Daniels
Soare

[Ruth_NZ]

Seems to be a fair amount of teams with unsettled defences at the moment. Heading towards the last third of the season, I appear to be having cheap defender options swiped away from me constantly. Finding it hard to piece together a settled value for money defence with decent points potential and not spending too much of overall budget as a means of achieving certain starters. It's not doing my hopes of recovering ground from my mid season slump much good.

Anyone got thoughts on this?

There are some good and pretty reliable options under 5.0 out there.

Delaney 4.4m and has good goal threat
Evans 4.8m and WBA have good fixtures
Daniels 4.6m and has penalties
Wollscheid 4.5m and nailed
Aké 4.4m if Watford fits your rotation
Simpson 4.1m or Morgan 4.3m for a good team without any distractions from the PL
Lescott 4.6m and real goal threat for a team that's improving defensively
Williams 4.8m and a BP magnet for another team that's improving
Moreno 4.9m and has good assist threat

If I were going ultra-cheap on defence I'd be happy with 5 of those.

[Notned]

Seems to be a fair amount of teams with unsettled defences at the moment. Heading towards the last third of the season, I appear to be having cheap defender options swiped away from me constantly. Finding it hard to piece together a settled value for money defence with decent points potential and not spending too much of overall budget as a means of achieving certain starters. It's not doing my hopes of recovering ground from my mid season slump much good.

Anyone got thoughts on this?

There are some good and pretty reliable options under 5.0 out there.

Delaney 4.4m and has good goal threat
Evans 4.8m and WBA have good fixtures
Daniels 4.6m and has penalties
Wollscheid 4.5m and nailed
Aké 4.4m if Watford fits your rotation
Simpson 4.1m or Morgan 4.3m for a good team without any distractions from the PL
Lescott 4.6m and real goal threat for a team that's improving defensively
Williams 4.8m and a BP magnet for another team that's improving
Moreno 4.9m and has good assist threat

If I were going ultra-cheap on defence I'd be happy with 5 of those.

I'd probably add Ward (4.5m) and Reid (4.8m) to that list too. Mentioned Reid over Collins as I'm still not sure how nailed he is, but he could also be a very good option.

[Ruth_NZ]

Yep. I left Ward out because Delaney is cheaper and I think he's a better option anyway. Whereas at Leicester Morgan is the better option but a bit more expensive.

As for West Ham, I'm not sure I know how their defence will settle out. I doubt Collins is nailed, I don't think Byram is nailed and with Tomkins back and Ogbonna available the only one I'm really sure of is Cresswell.

[From4corners]

I'll be bringing Fuchs (4.8m) into my team again, now that he looks to have secured a starting position for Leicester.

[Stocker16]

Right back situation is unclear, Tomkins has had a great season and I imagine is first choice but is carrying an injury right now.
Reid and Ogbonna are the first choice pairing; but Ginge has been superb so far and once Ogbonna comes back in for him it should be a pretty set backline - injuries permitting

Cresswell is only ever not starting a game due to injury

[Notned]

Right back situation is unclear, Tomkins has had a great season and I imagine is first choice but is carrying an injury right now.
Reid and Ogbonna are the first choice pairing; but Ginge has been superb so far and once Ogbonna comes back in for him it should be a pretty set backline - injuries permitting

Cresswell is only ever not starting a game due to injury

Reid the most nailed of the centre backs, then? I now he's half a million dearer than Collins, but still represents great value at 4.8m if it brings extra security.

[Hotstepper]

United - Smalling nailed. Blind pretty much nailed with Jones and others out, Darmian not far off being the same.

West Ham - not sure why you think Cresswell is unsettled?

Apologies, that was brain freeze, meant to type Collins rather than Cresswell

[Hotstepper]

I guess the root of this topic is that I've been stung in recent weeks by Bennett, Nyom, Ogbonna (those 3 in one week), and hokey-cokey Spurs fullbacks. I get that there's value picks out there, but I genuinely thought those named above were fairly steady value picks too. In the example of Bennet, the cheapie Fpl route into a defence is also probably the priority for a club manager to seek improvement in the transfer window.

[Ruth_NZ]

...the cheapie FPL route into a defence is also probably the priority for a club manager to seek improvement in the transfer window...

...an example of which may be Simpson of Leicester, the new signing Amartey plays CM or RB. Which is why I'd take Morgan if I wanted a Leicester defender right now.

[asm_fanz]

...an example of which may be Simpson of Leicester, the new signing Amartey plays CM or RB. Which is why I'd take Morgan if I wanted a Leicester defender right now.

According to transfermarkt, Amartey has only started 5 games at RB in his professional career, I doubt they'd go for someone who is clearly more of a DM (or CB) if they wanted to replace Simpson

[Hotstepper]

...the cheapie FPL route into a defence is also probably the priority for a club manager to seek improvement in the transfer window...

...an example of which may be Simpson of Leicester, the new signing Amartey plays CM or RB. Which is why I'd take Morgan if I wanted a Leicester defender right now.

Do you think Fuchs is worth the bit extra?

[Ruth_NZ]

...an example of which may be Simpson of Leicester, the new signing Amartey plays CM or RB. Which is why I'd take Morgan if I wanted a Leicester defender right now.

According to transfermarkt, Amartey has only started 5 games at RB in his professional career, I doubt they'd go for someone who is clearly more of a DM (or CB) if they wanted to replace Simpson

He's 6 foot exactly, maybe a bit on the small side to play CB in the PL? Renowned for his pace, which suggests RB is more likely. But his primary position is CM. In which case he's squad cover, I can't see him displacing Kante or Drinkwater any time soon.

Do you think Fuchs is worth the bit extra?

No, but others will differ. I'd rather have Morgan + 0.4m, Morgan is nailed on as club captain and also has threat at set pieces. But then I almost always buy the cheapest gametime secure defender from any club, I don't buy defenders for attacking points as a first principle (the exception being Baines when he had loads of set pieces and was also on penalties).

[Aldershot Rejects]

No, but others will differ. I'd rather have Morgan + 0.4m, Morgan is nailed on as club captain and also has threat at set pieces.

Morgan is amazing, he captained Jamaica to the CONCACAF final in July, had no pre-season and has just been relentless all season. Surely he has to flag at some point.

[asm_fanz]

He's 6 foot exactly, maybe a bit on the small side to play CB in the PL? Renowned for his pace, which suggests RB is more likely. But his primary position is CM. In which case he's squad cover, I can't see him displacing Kante or Drinkwater any time soon.

On the small side yes, but Otamendi, Jagielka or Coloccini are 6 foot too and they're doing fine, so I don't think it matters that much. You're right he could be squad cover too, if anything was to happen to Drinkwater or Kanté I'm sure they'll be happy to have a decent replacement given how important they are. It would also give Ranieri different options should he want to change formation during a game or depending on the opposition

[Triggy]

No, but others will differ. I'd rather have Morgan + 0.4m, Morgan is nailed on as club captain and also has threat at set pieces.

Morgan is amazing, he captained Jamaica to the CONCACAF final in July, had no pre-season and has just been relentless all season. Surely he has to flag at some point.

As a Forest fan who's seen Morgan for a decade of his career - no, he won't flag at any stage, the guy is just a machine. Always on form (yes that has to be taken in the context of the quality of the team overall) and very seldom injured, if you ever wanted to get a guaranteed starter who is one of the best defenders in the top-of-the-table team then you'll literally never get a better chance than now (unless you think Simpson will never get dropped in any game this season).

[Ruth_NZ]

No, but others will differ. I'd rather have Morgan + 0.4m, Morgan is nailed on as club captain and also has threat at set pieces.

Morgan is amazing, he captained Jamaica to the CONCACAF final in July, had no pre-season and has just been relentless all season. Surely he has to flag at some point.

As a Forest fan who's seen Morgan for a decade of his career - no, he won't flag at any stage, the guy is just a machine. Always on form (yes that has to be taken in the context of the quality of the team overall) and very seldom injured, if you ever wanted to get a guaranteed starter who is one of the best defenders in the top-of-the-table team then you'll literally never get a better chance than now (unless you think Simpson will never get dropped in any game this season).

Yep. I'm being told that Amartey won't threaten Simpson's spot but I'm not so sure.

If you are a Forest fan you'll remember that Michael Dawson was Morgan's CB partner when they were both coming through. Dawson was the one everyone was raving about at the time but it seems that Morgan will end up having the more successful career. Though Dawson's injuries have played a part in that.

[Triggy]

Dawson was quality too but as you say, a combination of injuries and never quite "making it" at Spurs hurt him. Morgan has realised that he wants to play, is a local lad so didn't want to move too far if it could be helped and with Forest's future plans uncertain at the time, committed to a confident upper-mid-table in the Championship side in Leicester and just got on with it. A lesson for many a wannabe footballer I think.

[asm_fanz]

Yep. I'm being told that Amartey won't threaten Simpson's spot but I'm not so sure.

If you refer to what I said, I probably don't know more than you do on the subject, it just seems illogical to buy a player that played RB a handful of times in his career to put him in competition with your starting RB, who has done nothing wrong in my book. Make of that what you will

[Ruth_NZ]

Agreed. But the uncertainty would be enough to make me happily pay 0.2 more for Morgan. Who I think has better goal threat anyhow.

[bigcliff2]

Does anyone know about Rangel? Is he likely to get minutes now? Cheers

[Stemania]

Does anyone know about Rangel? Is he likely to get minutes now? Cheers

Has been rotated with Naughton for a while now (a bit like the Spurs fullbacks) - I actually sold him for Targett last week. It doesn't appear clear yet who is the preferred RB under the new manager unfortunately.

[bigcliff2]

Cheers