Coventry City FPL: Who To Own, Captain And Avoid

Coventry: the worst attack in the league is hiding the best £4.0m defenders in the game

Let's be honest about what Coventry are: our model has them dead last of all 20 for attacking threat. If you're here looking for goals, close the tab. But flip to the other end and the picture changes — a mid-table defence, and a run of fixtures that's genuinely kind for clean sheets. That combination is exactly where a value manager should be shopping.

The pitch is simple. At £4.0m, Bobby Thomas and van Ewijk are both nailed starters projected for roughly 22 points over the next six — that's the sort of return most £4.5m defenders would take, off the very bottom price band. That's not a punt; that's a starting defender at enabler money, which is the whole point of enabler money. The savings fund the shiny stuff elsewhere. Thomas edges it in our order, and only about 1 in 10 managers own either, so you're not chasing the crowd.

Jay Dasilva is the same price and also nailed if you need a third route in, and Rushworth at £4.5m is a perfectly sensible cheap keeper — though I'd take the outfielders first, because a £4.0m defender who plays every week is the rarest commodity in the game.

The caveats, because there always are some. It opens at Forest and includes trips to Tottenham and Everton — clean sheets on the road there are hopeful, not expected. The real meat is the home block: Fulham and Sunderland at the Coventry Building Society Arena is where the points live, with Newcastle at home a tougher ask. And steer clear of the midfielders — Grimes and friends are cheap and nailed, but a midfielder in the league's bluntest attack is paying for minutes with no goals attached. Grimes is on corners and in the penalty queue, which is nice trivia, not a buy case.

What changes the call? If Thomas or van Ewijk starts losing minutes, out they go — their entire value is that they never blank on appearance points. Nothing in the evidence suggests that's coming.

The call: buy Bobby Thomas at £4.0m as your set-and-forget cheap defender, van Ewijk if you already own him or want two. Bench them for the away trips to Spurs and Everton if you have the luxury; start them at home without a second thought. Ignore everything Coventry-shaped that costs more than £4.5m.