Defenders. Who is leading the EPL stats?

First off, these stats only look at players who have so far started at least 50% of the games up to Game Week 8, i.e. at least 4 games. I haven’t included stats under this threshold (3 games or less) because those players stats could be slightly skewed due to the lack of game time.

The stats are all per 90 mins

Anyway, if you play Fantasy Premier League, these stats could be of interest to you. There could be some bargain transfers to be had.

Please note: If you are viewing this post on your mobile it is best viewed online in a browser. The Stats tables will be hard to view on a mobile because of the amount of data contained in them.

Brighton and Wolves have two defenders each in the top 10 for Tackles Made per 90 mins. The Bueno boys being there is probably not as big of a surprise as you might think. Being bottom of the league means Wolves will have had a lot of defending to do so far.

The Wolves Bueno boys and Brighton’s Veltman and Wieffer are still in the top 10 for the number of Tackles Won per 90 mins. But for the percentage of tackles won (i.e. who is the best tackler out tackles made) that is topped out by:

However the top 3 best tacklers are:

They don’t appear in the Top 10 of Tackles Won per 90 mins though because of the low number of tackles they have made

Who are the top defenders when diving in to block a shot (ooops, at the risk of only getting a knick that deceives his own goalkeeper)?

Well Tarkowski of Everton (no surprise for me there) and Agbadou of Wolves are ahead of the rest by quite a way with 1.7 per 90 mins

These top 10 guys are just maybe reading the game a little bit better than most from a defensive perspective. The stand-out is Josh Laurent at Burnley. Although his Tackles and Tackles Won are not flash he is top of the Interceptions for Defenders.

There is a clear leader in the Clearances Top 10. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) just had to be in the Defensive stats Top 10s somewhere… didn’t he? No denying his class no matter what the stats say.

This post might be Defenders we are running the rule over but if they can score and provide assists as well that is a bonus the Managers must love. Chelsea and Arsenal having two Defenders in this Top 10 has helped them become 2nd and 3rd respectively in the ‘Goals For’ column with 16 and 15 respectively, up to and including game week 8 (Man City are top with 17 goals so far)

So who is in the Top 10 for defenders when you add up all these stats for Tackles, Shots Blocked, Interceptions etc.? There are 41 Defenders in these Top 10s, but who are in the overall Top 10 when you combine all the defensive attributes?

Not who you would think. No Gabriel (Arsenal) or Dias (Man City) or Guehi (Crystal Palace) or Burn (Newcastle) to name just a few,

If you are into Fantasy Premier League there could be some names in the Top 10 that you don’t have in your team and could be worth a transfer or two…

All stats for this analysis are provided by FBref