There has been a lot of talk in the community this week about removing Joao Cancelo from teams, in order to bring in Chelsea defender(s), and whilst I can understand the desire to bring in Chelsea defenders (they have a double gameweek against Burnley and Norwich, followed by great looking fixtures through to the end of the season. I just can't bring myself to do it at the expense of Cancelo.
Cancelo is one of my favourite players in the league. Lining up as a "nominal" full back in, he takes up unusual position in City's attack, and is a key cog in terms of the teams creativity. Comfortable with the ball at either foot, defenders never know whether to expect Cancelo to go outside, or inside. He overlaps and underlaps, to great effect, and provides an unpredictability to attacks.
Using the Stats Table builder in the Fantasy Football Scout Members Area, I've take a look at the 25 top FPL Point scoring Defenders in their last 6 Games to see if I'm missing something about why there seems to be a ground swell of opinion to get rid of the Portuguese international.
Over that period, Cancelo is 10th highest points scorer, with the only Chelsea defender above him being the injured Ben Chilwell. The next Chelsea asset is Thiago Silva with 27 (side note - If I could afford Silva I would bring him in, but unfotunately I'm .1m short of being able to bring him in for Diogo Dalot)
Name | Team | Points |
Robertson | LIV | 58 |
Chilwell | CHE | 54 |
van Dijk | LIV | 44 |
Stones | MAN C | 40 |
Matip | LIV | 39 |
Laporte | MAN C | 37 |
Tierney | ARS | 35 |
Alexander-Arnold | LIV | 34 |
Zinchenko | MAN C | 32 |
Cancelo | MAN C | 32 |
The list is full of Liverpool and Man City defenders. With both teams going for the title, I'd expect minimal rotation too meaning that none of my boys from those sides will be going.
When looking deeper into Cancelo's stats over that same time frame, it makes me evermore hesitant to even consider replacing him.
In terms of ICT Threat, Cancelo is Second only to Chilwell. He's second again to Chilwell in terms of touches in the opposition box with 22 (Chilwell has 26, Kyle Walker-Peters is 3rd with 21). He's the clear leader in terms of Touches in the final third (298, Robertson is second on 231). He's 10th in terms of xG, and 8th in terms of xA. None of the Chelsea boys over their last 6 games have got anywhere near him, apart from the aforementioned Chilwell, and we all know he's out for the rest of the season.
Man City also have kept 17 clean sheets in 27 games this season, compared to Chelsea's 11 in 25. In terms of Big chances conceded, Man City again lead the way with 27, compared to Chelsea's 31. There's not a metric that would make me want to part ways with Cancelo for a Chelsea defender. Even with the double gameweek and the fixtures.
Even if we look at this weekend as a standalone week. In the return fixture, Cancelo scored 14 points against Man Utd. Against Norwich and Burnley combined earlier this season, only Reece James outscored that, with 20. Rudiger scored 11 points, Thiago Silva got 8. With the doubts over James and his return from fitness, I won't be taking the gamble.
In terms of what I am going to do.... I'm still debating it. I want to replace David de Gea with Martin Dubravka from Newcastle. Doubles in GW 28 and 29, for the second best keeper in the game on current form are too tempting to miss out on as Newcastle continue to pull themselves out of trouble.
That move leaves me with £1m in the bank. Annoyingly, I need £1.1m to bring in Thiago Silva to replace Diogo Dalot in a move that would cover most bases. I could potentially remove Pope for Dubravka to release funds, but i like his fixture for next week with a potential to bench boost.
I've just thought about the potential of removing both keepers, for and also bringing Aaron Ramsdale back into the fold. That would give me an extra double next week if I were to bench boost, cover for GW30, and the funds to replace Dalot with Thiago Silva this week.
But taking a points hit for someone to sit on the bench seems odd. However if we just take the basic 2 points per appearance figure, it is made back over GW 29 and 30 with Ramsdale having two more games than Pope.