If you are the sort of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) manager who enjoys going against the grain – or takes satisfaction from finding hidden gems before the crowd – then lowly selected players (differentials) can often provide value and offer a source of points which won't be shared by many other managers. As long as the player picks are justifiable, differentials can give you an edge over your mini-league rivals.

In this article we shine the spotlight on defenders who are currently selected by less than 10% of managers, but could emerge amongst this season’s top performers.

Aymeric Laporte

• Cost: £6.0m
• Selected by: 5.2%
• Points/90: 5.08

Aymeric Laporte took 1.09 shots per 90 minutes last season - taken from the Opta Player Heatmaps tool

Last season, the Manchester City centre-back played more minutes than any defender, except for Joao Cancelo (£7.0m). He starts the season with a generous run of fixtures, only facing top-four opposition once in the first ten gameweeks.

In addition, he bagged 4 goals, 2 assists, and 18 clean sheets. If you want a City defender but are looking to re-distribute some budget, Laporte could be a worthwhile downgrade from the highly owned Cancelo.

Joel Matip

• Cost: £6.0m
• Selected by: 2.9%
• Points/90: 5.48

Joel Matip is predicted to get 25.8 points in the first six Gameweeks - taken from the Player Points Predictions tool

Playing consistently alongside Virgil van Dijk (£6.5m), the German centre-back was the fifth top-scoring defender in terms of FPL points (170) last season and was a bargain at £5.0m. Understandably, Matip’s price has been adjusted for the 2022/23 season, but he could still provide value for £1.0m more.

The Fix Algorithm has him as the eighth best defender, predicted to earn 25.8 points in the first six Gameweeks. The downsides are that owning Matip means giving up a valuable Liverpool spot and he could be rotated with his teammate, Ibrahima Konaté (£5m).

Kieran Tierney

• Cost: £5.0m
• Selected by: 4.4%
• Points/90: 4.97

Kieran Tierney made 0.94 attempted assists per 90 minutes last season - taken from the Opta Player Heatmaps tool

The Scottish international missed the last ten league games because of a knee injury, but is working hard to make a full recovery in time for the new season. When fit, he is expected to be a key part of Mikel Arteta’s system.

Selected by less than 5% of managers and costing just £5.0m, the talented full back could be a great alternative to the highly owned Takehiro Tomiyasu (£4.5m).

Rayan Aït-Nouri

• Cost: £4.5m
• Selected by: 2.8%
• Points/90: 4.29

Wolves had 11 clean sheets but conceded 43 goals last season - taken from the Opta Stats Sandbox tool

Wolves may have lacked threat going forward last season, but they were reasonably solid at the back, ranking 7th for the highest number of clean sheets (11).

With a generous run of opening fixtures, Rayan Aït-Nouri is amongst the top ten defenders for total predicted points, with the Player Points Projections tool predicting 24.3 points in the first six Gameweeks.

Lewis Dunk

• Cost: £4.5m
• Selected by: 1.8%
• Points/90: 3.22

Lewis Dunk could be rotated with an Arsenal defender to avoid facing a top-six team - taken from the Rotation Planner tool

The Brighton defender is selected by less than 2% of managers yet offers clean sheet potential – because Brighton is a difficult team to break down – and goal threat from set pieces due to his aerial ability.

Dunk also enables some good rotation pairings. For example, he rotates well with an Arsenal defensive asset or, as discussed in our Rotating Budget Defenders article, can rotate nicely with a Leicester defensive asset.

By Matt Whelan