In 2021/22, 9 Premier League teams kept double-digit clean sheets. In 2022/23, that jumped to 11. In 2023/24, that number dropped to just 7.
If that seems somewhat arbitrary, let’s take 13 cleans as our cut-off. So, that’s a team keeping a clean sheet in around 1/3 of their games. 5 teams did it in 21/22, 5 again in 22/23, 3 did it in 23/24.
In short, last season was a tough one for cleans.
Arsenal were the only team we could largely depend on start to finish.
Everton ended up as a good defence, when they were fully Dyche-ified, but were rubbish to start the season. Trust me, I had Pickford.
Man City also ended up with 13 cleans… but Pep Roulette often made it tricky to actually score those cleans in FPL.
Logically, we’ll probably see something of a bounce-back in 24/25. As ever though, actually working out which teams will be good defensively is incredibly hard in advance.
Everyone loved the Newcastle defence after their 14 cleans in 22/23. That… didn’t work out in 23/24, especially earlier in the season.
Villa would have seemed another solid pick, based on how the defence picked up after Emery took over from Stevie G the previous season. They ended up with a bang-average 8 cleans.
So, What’s the Approach?
I think the only defence we can actually trust in FPL terms, going into the 24/25 season, is Arsenal. City will probably be fine, but always carry rotation risk.
Early in the season, I think we just have to accept that we won’t have any idea which defences are actually good or not.
As such, I think the overwhelming priority has to be targeting defenders with attacking potential.
I wrote a full article last season, basically saying that only attacking full-backs are worth spending decent money on in FPL. Apart from a very, very select few – like Gabriel/Saliba last season – if you’re picking a CB, they should really be at a 4.5 or close to it.
You’re not backing them for goals. Early season cleans are a gamble anyway. So… let’s keep the stakes as low as possible for those gambles, and invest the money saved in more reliable mids and forwards.
Since they’re also clean sheet-dependent, I’d also advocate spending close to the minimum on your goalkeepers.
This can all change as the season goes along, and we see who’s actually good defensively. For now, while we’re basically just guessing in that regard, I think this is the right approach.
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Best FPL Goalkeepers 2024/25
I actually quite enjoy picking goalkeepers to start the season.
I’ll almost never take a premium, instead restricting myself to two cheap options. So, it can be fun to try and piece together the right rotation!
Again, cleans are a gamble anyway, but – if we’re using minimal stakes – that gamble is enjoyable!
Premiums
Right now, Raya is the only 5.5 keeper I’d consider. Ederson is also fine at 5.5 if he stays… but FPL Towers have smartly priced Ortega at 5.5 too, in case Ederson bolts for Saudi Arabia.
I prefer Raya over either of them anyway. But, City’s early season fixtures are fine, so I wouldn’t fight you over it.
If you’re happy to pay a sub-premium 5.0, it’s hard to look past Pickford.
It took Everton a while to go full-Dyche last season. I’d assume it happens earlier this time around. Their fixtures are fine, but – if they are Dycheing from the off – it largely doesn’t matter who they’re playing anyway.
Budget
The 4.5 bracket is packed-out, as usual. The actual options, however, aren’t exactly mouth-watering.
In theory, getting a Chelsea GK (I’m presuming Sanchez starts, but there are rumours about a new keeper), for only 4.5, sounds like a good deal. Unfortunately, we have absolutely no idea whether Chelsea will be any good or not. So, it’s a gamble, even at that price.
I’d probably feel a bit safer with Palace’s keeper… if we knew who it was. Hopefully we get a better idea by the time the season starts. If so, I like Johnstone or Henderson for 4.5, with a solid run of fixtures to start the season.
All this said, if we’re taking the budget route, we’re almost certainly putting together a rotation based on fixtures, rather than confidently backing the keepers themselves. Which leads us neatly to…
Fixture Runs and Rotations
Having a good look at the fixtures, Pickford becomes increasingly tempting. Of Everton’s first 10 games, only Spurs away, Villa away, and (to a lesser extent) Newcastle at home look somewhat scary.
Those Spurs and Villa games are in GWs 2 and 4. Palace play West Ham and Leicester, at home, in those weeks, both of which feel fine. Chelsea play Wolves and Bournemouth away. Either way, that’s a solid 5.0 + 4.5 GK rotation to get you through the first 10 weeks.
Alternatively, you could obviously just stick with Pickford anyway those two weeks. Then you could have a 4.0 bench keeper, to offset the extra cost of having Pickford to start with. I’d prefer to have a playing 4.5 ideally, but – if it enabled a decent upgrade elsewhere in your team – the 4.0 keeper gamble is fine.
What about a 4.5 + 4.5 rotation?
Assuming we actually know who their keepers are, a Palace + Chelsea rotation actually works pretty well.
I’m not really seeing any weeks where you wouldn’t to start either keeper until GW9, when they play Spurs and Newcastle. Then the very next week Palace have Wolves, so you’re right back in business!
Flekken (Brentford) and Areola (West Ham) are the most-owned 4.5s at the time of writing. I don’t like this rotation as much, though.
Straight away you have to choose between facing Villa or Palace, both of whom should be good going forward. In GW5 you’re picking between Chelsea and Spurs. In GW8 it’s Spurs or Man U.
Overall, if you’re not taking a premium keeper, it’s a pretty clear top 3 for me:
- Pickford + 4.5(CRY or CHE)/4.0
- Palace GK + Chelsea GK
- Flekken + Areola
Best FPL Defenders 2024/25
As noted above, I’d split defenders into two main brackets, regardless of price. Attacking full-backs, and centre-backs (reasoning here).
Again, at this stage I’m happy to spend on the former, but will probably be looking to save money on the latter, to invest further up the team.
Premiums
I see Arsenal as the most reliable defence by far to start the season. Unfortunately, their defenders are unsurprisingly expensive.
White is 6.5, and Gabriel and Saliba are 6.0. I wouldn’t get any of the left-back candidates in to start the season – any of Calafiori, Timber, and Tomiyasu could start there.
If I’m having one Arsenal defender, I’d genuinely be tempted to spend the extra on White. He outscored Saliba by 20pts last season, playing 400mins less. I think he’s improved dramatically going forward the past couple of seasons, and could certainly see him bettering his 9 goal involvements from last season.
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As usual, Trent is the most expensive defender, and the most tantalising prospect.
We all know his upside. We also know that he let us down early last season, and only managed 5 assists total (admittedly he was injured for quite a bit of the season).
The obvious pro is his big potential for returns. On paper, five of Liverpool’s first six games also look like potential cleans.
The cons are that we don’t know where he’ll be playing, don’t know Slot’s tactics yet, and – again – he burned us early last year.
Personally, if I’m going with a premium defender, I’d rather have a surer thing in White, at least to start with. If Trent does look amazing under Slot, it’s an easy upgrade for only 0.5 more.
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I’m nervous about basically all Man City players.
Walker is probably the safest pick for minutes, but historically doesn’t get attacking returns. Gvardiol looked great at LB towards the end of last season… but who knows if and when Ake gets rotated in, and you’re just suddenly stuck with a 5.5 defender getting subbed-on for 1pt per game. Who the hell knows with the CB’s…
I’ve played Pep Roulette too many times before – I’m not getting involved right at the start of the season!
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Trippier is a headache. It felt like he had a down year last year, especially in the first half… and he still ended up with 10 assists. That’s in only 2,235mins too – White got 9 GI in almost 3,000mins, for reference.
Newcastle’s defence looked all over the place for stretches last year. They were famously riddled with injuries though, including to their GK. Their first five fixtures this season are decent too, with Spurs in GW3 the only nasty one.
I am strongly tempted by him. If you need to save 0.5 or 1.0 respectively, to enable upgrades elsewhere, I think he’s an excellent alternative to White or Trent.
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Porro is the other tempting one, at only 5.5. He got 11 GI last year, on a solid xGI of over 9, so his attacking returns were hardly a fluke. The problem is… Spurs’ defence looked shocking for long stretches, and he only managed 7 cleans. Trippier and Trent got 6 and 8 respectively, in around 800 fewer minutes.
We’re not solely concerned with cleans here… but a gap this big (it’s even bigger with White) makes me willing to spend the extra money on Trent, White, or Trippier. If Spurs do look better defensively, we can drop down to Porro easily from one of the others, and make a nice saving.
Budget
At the higher end of the ‘budget’ scale, we have a few 5.0 defenders worth discussing.
The more intriguing options are the pair of attacking full-backs – Muñoz at Palace, and Maatsen at Villa.
Muñoz scored five goals in Belgium in the first half of last season. Then he came over to Palace in January, started 16 times, and got 4 assists (on only 1.26 xA, if we’re picking holes). He also picked up 5 cleans.
I like Palace in general this season. They do have four potentially challenging games in their first 10, though – Chelsea away, Man U home, Liverpool home, Spurs home. I’d be fine rotating a 4.5, like Anderson (see below), for the good games. I’d be more hesitant to go up to 5.0, especially when – as noted – Muñoz’s underlying attacking stats last season weren’t great.
Maatsen looked very good in the Champions League knockouts. In 22 starts for Dortmund last season in the league and CL, he only got 3 goals and 2 assists… which is fine, but not exactly thrilling. Also… Villa have two left-backs already. They shelled out for him, so he probably plays… but it’s another question mark. He could certainly get hooked early, if he’s not playing well any given game. Overall, I’m not interested to start the season – let’s wait and see on this one.
In the 5.0, we also have the Everton CB’s. If you are happy to spend 5.0 on a CB, Branthwaite is a fine pick.
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I’d rather just take promising 4.5s though, whether they’re CB’s or FB’s.
Anderson at Palace, Konsa at Villa, Burn at Newcastle, and Castagne at Fulham all feel like solid picks. Mykolenko is probably my pick of the bunch though, and I’ve got no problem doubling up with him and Pickford.
They all play for teams that got around 10 cleans last season. And none of them really have more than one tough fixture in their first five games or so, meaning you can put a rotation together pretty easily.
In general, I really wouldn’t overthink the budget defender part of your team. At the risk of repeating myself, we’re largely crossing our fingers and hoping when it comes to cleans early in the season anyway. I’d much rather lock in one or two premium full-backs, then put my time and FPL money into sorting out the midfield and attack.
Defensive Rotation
Right, enough noodling about. Let’s try and put an example plan together, for how we could approach the first 10 weeks.
Again, predicting clean sheets is something of a fool’s game. But, we have to do the best with the information we have now. Let’s not overthink targeting Ipswich for cleans, for example.
We’ll say you have one premium attacking full-back (White is my pick). He’s starting every game anyway, so that’s that.
Villa defenders (like Konsa) are fine to start in all GWs except 2, 7, and 10.
Newcastle defenders (like Burn) are fine in all GWs except 3, 6, 9, and 10.
Palace defenders (like Anderson) look risky in GWs 3, 5, 7, and 9. In GW 10 (a problem, for our last two picks), they play Wolves – that’s fine.
So, with four spots taken, we’re still looking ropey in GWs 3 and 7.
Fulham play Ipswich in GW 3 (yay!) but City in GW 7 (boo!).
Everton play Bournemouth in GW 3, and Newcastle at home in GW 7 (not terrible). Considering they should be a good defence anyway, and their only potentially dodgy fixtures are in GWs 2 and 4 (Villa away), I’m fine locking an Everton defender in (preferably Mykolenko).
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So!
We’re only starting three defenders anyway, so mixing and matching here is pretty easy.
Let’s say we’re going with Premium Full-Back (PFB), Myko, Burn, Konsa, and Castagne.
The PFB starts every week, thanks to his tasty attacking potential.
A pretty easy rotation for the first 10 weeks would be:
- PFB / Myko (BHA home) / Burn (SOU home)
- PFB / Castagne (LEI home) / Burn (BOU away)
- PFB / Myko (BOU home) / Castagne (IPS away)
- PFB / Konsa (EVE home) / Burn (WOL away)
- PFB / Myko (LEI away) / Konsa (WOL home)
- PFB / Konsa (IPS away) / Myko (PAL home)
- PFB / Burn (EVE away) / Myko (NEW home)
- PFB / Myko (IPS away) / Burn (BHA home)
- PFB / Myko (FUL home) / Konsa (BOU home)
- PFB / Myko (SOU away) / Castagne (BRE home)
Takeaways from this?
An Everton defender is must-own. They’ve got too many good matchups, and they’re – in theory – a reliable defence.
I’m starting my Newcastle defender 5 times here, and my Villa defender 4 times. So, that’s fine on both counts.
Castagne is only starting three times, and I don’t love Brentford in GW 10. Overall though, I still prefer his fixtures to a Palace defender, for example, and we’ve seen Fulham can be a good defence… when they can be bothered.
Overall then, I’m happy with a rotation of PFB / Everton / Newcastle / Villa, with Fulham probably being the next best option.
If you were to spring for a second premium full-back, he’d take Castagne’s spot here.
Final Thoughts
Obviously, there are loads and loads of defenders out there. And quite a few goalkeepers too! So, if I missed anyone you’re interested in, don’t hesitate to shout at me on Reddit.
To summarise:
- GK – I’m leaning Pickford
- DEF – I want at least one, maybe two good full-backs, then 4.5 CB’s
James and I are well into FPL 24/25 ‘Season Preview Mode’ now. Keep checking the site regularly for new articles, or just follow us on Reddit through that link above. We also, from time to time, update our Twitter.