There are a number of defenders available in the 4.5 price bracket ahead of the 2022/23 season and in this blog their numbers from last season are compared to determine the best options. Averages are used since some players missed games through injury or joined in the January window.

Reguilón tops the Expected FPL Score (xFPL) (4.6) in the Custom Stats Table for 4.5 defenders, the Spain international offers outstanding value playing in a wingback role but with the signing of Perisic, his gametime might be significantly reduced and there is the possibility of him leaving Spurs altogether after being left out of their preseason tour. Palace centre-backs Guehi (4.3) and Andersen (4.2) feature highly despite their limited attacking threat, which speaks volumes for Palace's clean sheet potential. However, as the below image shows, Palace are second-bottom of our Fixture Analyser for Defence Difficulty for the first six gameweeks which is off-putting. However, Arsenal do have a great run of fixtures which increases the appeal of White, who also fares well for xFPL (4.2).

When looking at attempted assists per match, Jonny (0.8), Walker-Peters (0.8), Coufal (0.8), Justin (0.7) and Ait-Nouri (0.7) catch the eye. Rotating these options could be a wise strategy and as the below image from our Rotation Planner shows, rotating Jonny and Coufal provides an outstanding run of fixtures all the way up to gameweek eight.

The above fixture run provides two games against promoted sides as well as three games against sides that finished in the bottom six of last year's table. The Rotation Planner is a powerful tool and with the Foxes expected to fare well without European commitments this season, it suggests a rotation with Newcastle as shown in the image below