FPL Budget Picks: The Best DEF Under £5.0
The call — Budget defenders: who's actually worth your £5.0m or less The whole game at this end of the market is minutes. A cheap defender who starts every week funds the Haaland at the other end; a cheap defender who gets rotated is dead money wearing a kit. With 51 defenders qualifying at £5.0m or under, here's the dozen our model actually…
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De Cuyper (BHA, £5.0m) — top of the list and it's not close. A proven starter, a very kind run beginning at Sunderland, and our projections have him good for around 30 points over the next six — call it a solid 5 a week. About 3 in 10 managers already own him, so he's hardly a secret, but value isn't about being clever. It's about being right.
Davis (IPS, £4.0m) — starts every week at the bottom price, which is the whole job description. The fixtures are rough, mind, starting with Fulham at home. An enabler, not a points machine.
Bogle (LEE, £4.6m) — proven, nailed, lovely fixtures once you get past Arsenal away. Quietly excellent.
Muharemović (LEE, £5.0m) — same kind run, projects almost identically to Bogle but costs 0.4m more and is less proven. Buy Bogle instead and pocket the change.
Bobby Thomas (COV, £4.0m) — starts, £4.0m, kind fixtures after Newcastle at home. Proper enabler material.
Egan (HUL, £4.1m) and Ajayi (HUL, £4.2m) — both start, favourable run, Everton at home first up. Egan edges it on our numbers.
Mitchell (CRY, £4.5m) — proven starter, average fixtures. Fine, unexciting.
Ajer (BRE, £4.5m) — proven, nice run, owned by hardly anyone (~4 in 10... no, ~0.4 in 10 — basically nobody). Sneaky bench option.
Diop (IPS, £4.0m) — starts, but same tough Ipswich run as Davis and projects worse. Take Davis.
Maguire (MUN, £4.8m) — starts, average fixtures, and £4.8m is an awkward price: too dear to be an enabler, too cheap to haul.
Vuskovic (BHA, £5.0m) — same lovely Brighton fixtures as De Cuyper, less proven, fewer projected points. Why take the understudy at the same price?
The call: De Cuyper is the pick — pay the full £5.0m, he starts, the fixtures are gorgeous, and he out-scores everything below him. Best alternative if you need the cash elsewhere: Davis at £4.0m — the fixtures are ugly, but he plays every week, and at this price that's the only promise worth paying for.