The euros has finished and attention has turned back to the Premier League and Premier League Fantasy Football 2021/22. However, it is only very early stages and with most players off playing in international tournaments, the transfer window hasn’t been as active as it usually is at this point.

That being said, I have managed to put together some of the best goal keepers and defenders for FPL and ones to keep an eye on in the early stages. This is likely to change a lot before the start of the season due to transfers, but can be used for inspiration, some early good picks and a good way to balance your squad with premiums and budget players.

Goalkeepers

Goalkeepers are an underestimated position in FPL. A consistent goal keeper can do wonders for your team and make a big difference. As well as not being a position I’d recommend choosing as captain or triple captain, it is also the position I’d recommend transferring the least but can also be fixture dependent. Therefore, it’s a position that requires more thought than most give it and where you can earn an advantage on your rivals. Emi Martinez, the highest scoring goalkeeper last season, scored 186 points last season. More than any defender, and was the 7th highest scoring player in the league.

Robert Sanchez (£4.5m)

Brighton performed much worse than expected last year. Despite finishing 16th on just 41 points, they gave some top teams tough matches and looked great in spells. They only conceded 46 goals last season which was the least outside the top 8 and only 2 more than Manchester United. Sanchez was one of the reasons for this. Their 3 at the back formation looked strong at the end of the season and I expect them to perform much better than they did last term. With good defending, comes clean sheet points for Sanchez, which is why he is my first choice goal keeper. At just 4.5m, he is at a great price for one of the best defences in the league.

Ben Foster (£4.0m)

Ben Foster is a great choice for aback up goal keeper. The main reason is that he is £4.0m and was mainly chosen to enable me to stretch my budget across my outfield players. With Matt Ryan leaving Brighton, there is little to no chance Sanchez will be rotated as he was last season. Foster is probably the most likely goal keeper to play from all of the £4.0m goal keepers available. He is not first choice for Watford, but he did get rotated in from time to time last season.

Emi Martinez (£5.5m)

After the season he just had, he had to be included in this list. A massive 186 points as mentioned earlier, making him the 7th highest player in the whole of FPL. His amazing number of save points combined with his 15 clean sheets, (3rd highest in the league) made him a must have going in to the second half of the season. He is already topping the selected by percentage with 39.3% at the time of writing. However, £5.5m is basically premium pricing for a goal keeper. If you choose him, I’d advise choosing a £4.0m backup and to set and forget, just as you would if you were to go all out for a £6.0m goal keeper.

Defenders

In my opinion, defenders are the easiest way to secure points. Predicting whether or not a team will keep a clean sheet is probably the easiest thing to predict in Premier League Fantasy Football, though it is still difficult. Therefore, choosing cheap defenders from teams with good defences is the strategy I recommend when it comes to choosing defenders.

Alexander Arnold (£7.5m)

Last season, Trent Alexander Arnold had, what most consider to be, a poor season. Despite this, he scored 160 FPL points, just 1 behind Andrew Robertson (the highest scoring defender). He is the most expensive defender on the game and rightly so.

Picking up his form for the end of the season, he scored 1 goal, recorded 4 assists and 4 clean sheets in his last 9 games which is pretty unrivalled compared to the other defenders in the league.

With the return of Van Dijk and the addition of Konate, I expect Liverpool’s defence to be keeping plenty of clean sheets this season. These 2 fast and dominating centre backs will also give Trent Alexander Arnold and Andrew Robertson more of a licence to go forward and join the attack, which can only mean even more goals and assists for the both of them.

Tariq Lamptey (£4.5m)

If you remember the start of the last campaign, Lamptey came flying out of the blocks and was starting to force people to consider him as one of the young stars of the Premier League. Unfortunately, his season was cut short due to injury but he was an incredibly exciting prospect. He scored 1 goal and recorded 1 assist in his 11 games of the season. He averaged 0.9 key passes per game, 0.9 crosses per game and 0.5 shots per game. Impressive stats for a defender with a £4.5m price tag.

I also mentioned the strength of Brighton’s defence last season when writing about Sanchez earlier in the article and the same applies here. With the possibility of Brighton playing 3 at the back as they did in plenty of games last season, we could see Lamptey in a more advanced role this season, making even more offensive plays resulting in returns.

Matthew Lowton (£4.5m)

Lowton is a player I recommend due to his price and the defence that he plays in. Burnley have been known in the Premier League for years as the team that is hard to break down and Lowton is the starting right back. Lowton wouldn’t be in my team for hauls, but consistent 6 points more often than not.

Burnley finished 17th last season which was a really poor campaign for them, but they still managed 11 clean sheets. At £4.5m I think Lowton is a great option.

Luke Shaw (£5.5m)

Little needs to be said about Luke Shaw after the Euros campaign and the season he had last season. He was one of the first names on my team sheet when drafting my fantasy team. His 5 assists ranked him 3rd in the Manchester United team for assists and he even managed to get a goal. In the Euros, he played 6 games and recorded 3 assists and 1 goal showing his attacking potential. Manchester United’s 13 clean sheets helped his points tally last season, but I think Shaw could be one of the highest scoring defenders in FPL this season and will definitely be in my team.

Luke Ayling (£4.5m)

Another £4.5m player to finalise the defenders list. Luke Ayling is a guaranteed starter in what was a surprisingly solid defence for Leeds last season. Despite their all-out-attack approach, Leeds managed 11 clean sheets last season with Ayling involved in all of them.

Stuart Dallas was the star of the show last season, however with him now moving to midfield, Ayling is my choice from the Leeds defence. He had similar underlying stats to Dallas, both with 0.7 key passes per game and Ayling actually completing more dribbles per game. I think Ayling was unlucky not to get more attacking returns last season. At £4.5m he’s definitely worth the gamble to see if his luck improves going forward while also picking up the occasional clean sheet.

Midfielders

In my opinion, midfielders is the most important position and where I tend to focus my premiums. The reason being they get an extra point for a goal and can get a clean sheet point. Although it doesn’t seem like much, it can add up over the course of a 38 game campaign.

Mohammed Salah (£12.5m)

It wouldn’t be a complete list without him. He’s the most expensive player on the game and a must have, in my opinion. Mo Salah is currently 49.9% TSB (teams selected by) and with good reason. He’s been in the top 3 scorers in the last 4 seasons and he has the record for the most fpl points in 1 season with 303 points in the 2017/18 season.

He’d also be my pick for captain first game of the season when Liverpool play away to newly promoted Norwich.

Kevin De Bruyne (£12.0m)

Kevin De Bruyne is another premium in my draft for the new season. He was impressive in the euros and as long as he stays injury free, I expect him to be a top performer this campaign. He is incidental in the outstanding Manchester City attack and is unrivalled as the best player in the league on his day.

Man City have scored the most goals in the league for the past 4 years running so getting an attacking asset from the team is key. We all know how Pep likes to rotate his team, but when De Bruyne is fit, he’s too good to drop and is the most likely player to keep his place in the side, week in week out.

Raphinha (£6.5m)

Raphinha was one of my favourite players to watch last season. He played in the midfield of Bielsa’s attacking Leeds side and fit right in. He created chance after chance and looked to be one of Leeds’ most consistent players.

He averaged 2.1 key passes per game (7th highest in the league) 2.2 shots per game and 1.9 dribbles per game. With 6 goals and 9 assists in his 26 starts, I believe he was unlucky to put up these numbers and will do better this season. £6.5m is definitely great value for those underlying stats.

James Ward-Prowse (£6.5m)

Ward-Prowse’s form came in spells last season so he’s a good player to keep an eye on all season long, even if you don’t start with him in your team. He is known for his set-pieces which enable him to rack up plenty of assists. 8 goals and 7 assists last season made him the 8th highest scoring midfielder last season, meaning £6.5m is a generous price.

Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m)

Bruno Fernandes was the highest scoring player last season with 244 points. With 18 goals and 12 assists, you can see why.

12 of his 18 goals were penalties and with Manchester United being in the top 3 teams for penalties in the last 3 seasons, it’s likely he will get plenty of chances from the spot this season.

He also looked very dangerous from open play, playing in an advance midfield role behind the striker. Although quiet in the Euros, he’s hard to ignore being the highest scoring player last season.

Forwards

The forwards are your most consistent scorers. Obviously playing in the most advanced role, their job is to score goals. With there being lots of cheap options this season, I’ve picked out some players I think are good value for money to enable you to go for some bigger hitters in midfield.

Patrick Bamford (£8.0m)

Bamford looks somewhat of a differential so far in FPL. His TSB is only 17% at the moment. I expected this to be much higher. He got 17 goals and 9 assists last season, scored the 2nd most points for a forward (behind Kane) and is the third Leeds player on my list.

He was extremely consistent last season. The longest he went without a return was just 3 games. He also averaged 2.8 shots per game (5th in the league) and 0.8 key passes per game, showing where both his goals and assists came from.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£8.0m)

Calvert-Lewin scored 16 goals and recorded 6 assist in the Premier League last season. He excelled in an Everton team who used him very well by exploiting his aerial presence.

He had a great start to last season scoring 7 goals in his first 5 games to open the season. Everton also have a generous fixture list to open this season, playing with the lowest fixture difficulty score over the first 6 matches.