EPL DFS Breakdown – Saturday 10/26/2019
By Vince Dray
EPL DFS Defenders
Marcos Alonso (Chelsea @ Burnley, $15) – I’ve written up Alonso a few times now including last week when he scored and put up 38/2 fantasy points. He has established a nice floor in the mid-teens with his peripherals and can top out in the mid-30s as we’ve seen with his attacking upside. This is a middle of the road match-up for him.
He should be able to do some attacking but Burnley will pose enough of a challenge where he will need to defend as well. While Alonso doesn’t rely much on clearances, it is consistently his best defensive peripheral, and Burnley allow opposing defenders to get many clearances.
He’s the main defender to pay up for on Saturday. To go along with the point that Burnley allows opposing defenders to rack up clearances, Kurt Zouma ($11) is still pretty affordable here. He has 2 consecutive 14+ point games and relies a lot on clearances.
Christian Kabasele (Bournemouth @ Watford, $12) – Kabasele has been an absolute hound defensively in his 2 most recent starts with back to back games in the upper 20s. In those 2 games he averaged 11.5 clearances, 4 interceptions, and 5 tackles.
It’s always great for us fantasy players when you see a defender spread out his peripherals, and it’s even better when there’s one of those that the player thrives at. Kabasele should be able to continue his hot streak in this match-up, and I expect him to be somewhat popular with people trying to ride the hot hand.
James Tarkowski (Chelsea @ Burnley, $14) – There are a whole host of viable defenders all at $14, but I’m going to favor Tarkowski. He’s been consistently above 15 fantasy points this season doing so in 6/9 of his games.
Tarkowski has also shown the best ceiling out of the guys here. This is a good match-up at home against a Chelsea team that has the tendency to play a pretty open style. Tarkowski should be up to his normal tricks on Saturday, and I’m expecting another solid game in the upper teens to low 20s.
Steve Cook (Bournemouth @ Watford, $14) – Following closely behind Tarkowski in my book is Steve Cook. He’s been just as consistently above 15 fantasy points, also doing so in 6/9 games. However, he only has 1 game this year over the 20 point mark.
Cook is the league leader in clearances through 9 games, and his value relies a little more on only clearances than you would like (which is probably the reason why his ceiling is capped). Cook does have the advantage over Tarkowski with a much greater chance at a clean sheet bonus.
Diego Rico ($14) is right as this price range as well. His production has been dropping slightly in the last few games, but he draws a good match-up here against Watford. He creates the most chances out of any Bournemouth defender which will be useful against a league-worst defense.
Arthur Masuaku (Sheffield United @ West Ham, $10) – Masuaku is really just too cheap here probably because he has only played in 2 EPL games since August. Regardless, 4/5 of his games he finished above his current price point topping out at 32.3. This isn’t an ideal match-up because Sheffield won’t yield many peripherals.
However, he’s playing at home against a weak Sheffield attack, so a clean sheet bonus looks good. I have no problem punting with a guy who should get me into the teens for only $10. He’s as low as I can go on this slate unless something about Djibril Sidibe ($8) really speaks to you or you really need the extra $2.