With the majority of my squad completed yesterday, I'm now left with £19.8m left to spend on 4 defenders. I'm not averse to the idea of having Wolves' Kinder Bueno as my permanent 3rd sub - costing just £3.9m, he's currently playing regularly and he'd only come on if my team has some serious, unexpected issues.

I'll get to that once I've selected 3 more defenders and I've also made a switch following some FPL videos that I watched yesterday...

👪 Team Update

It's beginning to look like Kepa Arrizabalaga will be starting for Chelsea and as mentioned when thinking about Goalkeepers, if Chelsea's 'keeper situation became clearer before Monday, I'd make the change.

Whilst there's been little mention of Kepa in the press, Edouard Mendy has been discussed as a player who has only just returned to training and also using words like 'disrespectful' in regards to a contract offer. This doesn't sound like a player that's making friends so Kepa looks like a good bet to start against Bournemouth.

The best rotation option with Kepa is Raya (unless you want to go up to Ederson) so instead of Leno + Raya, I've made the switch to Kepa + Raya leaving my team looking like this:

Double Chelsea defence (with both currently flagged) feels a bit risky but as individual selections, James and Kepa look like the best options in their respective positions. Trevor Chalobah at £4.7m would also be tempting but a Chelsea defensive triple-up is a step too far.

🛡 Defender Options

As mentioned a few times, I'm keeping my 3rd Man City slot open for De Bruyne and I don't want a Chelsea triple-up in defence so have removed them from the options and now have the following defenders at the top of my defender ratings:

I've discussed / dismissed Ryan Sessegnon and Ivan Perišić in recent posts and whilst Perišić is back in training and in contention for Tottenham's game at Brentford, as tempting as he is, the rotation risk is simply too much for me.

👍 Including - Romain Perraud

17	18	19	20	21	22

Romain Perraud isn't a player that would instantly spring to mind for FPL but £4.4m is a kind price and Perraud's had plenty of attacking threat since cementing his place in the side, with 2 goals and 2 assists so far this season. His xGI per 90 of 0.30 is only bettered by Sessegnon, Perišić, Trippier, Alexander-Arnold and Reece James so he's clearly performing very well.

Southampton's new manager (Nathan Jones) built himself quite a reputation at Luton and will likely deploy a wing-back system again, which would be good news for Perraud.

Their fixtures look good and his price means that I'd use him to rotate with another budget defensive option, particularly in Gameweeks 17 and 22 if possible. Whilst I wouldn't be confident of too many Clean Sheets, a change in manager could bring an improvement at the back.

👍 Including - Kieran Trippier

17	18	19	20	21	22

Whereas Perraud is a player that I'm not expecting to see in many squads, Kieran Trippier's a player who I'm expecting to see in most (if not every) lineup. I got him for £5.2m so have plenty of money tied up in him already and as the game's top scoring defender (only behind Haaland and Kane in Total Points), his current price of £5.9m still looks good value.

He's on a lot of Newcastle's set pieces which has helped him to a goal and 4 assists so far this season. His xGI per 90 of 0.34 is only bettered by Perišić, Alexander-Arnold and Reece James and his 9 Clean Sheets from 16 games is remarkable (and unlikely to be maintained).

Newcastle's fixture run is reasonably good with a tricky game at Arsenal in Gameweek 19 - the only really difficult one (on paper).

It's no surprise to see Trippier's ownership at over 65% and this will probably increase as Monday's deadline approaches.

💫 Rotation With Perraud

With 2 defender slots left to fill, I'm now looking for a player who will rotate well with Perraud and I'll remove players that I've already said that I don't want to include.

With £9.9m remaining, the Liverpool boys are too expensive to be considered and Luke Shaw is then well ahead of Dalot and Gabriel as realistic options. It might come as a surprise to see Shaw ahead of Dalot in the player ratings but Shaw's xGI is superior (and Dalot's currently flagged as having a 25% chance of playing against Nottingham Forest).

👍 Including - Luke Shaw

17	18	19	20	21	22

I'm a big fan of this pick with Diogo Dalot the player that most people have been looking at in the Man Utd defence. Their underlying stats are similar although Dalot poses a slightly higher goal threat:

Shaw - 0.01 xG - 0.20 xA
Dalot - 0.06 xG - 0.11 xA

This comparison is also noted from last season where Shaw's assist potential was far greater than Dalot (0.21 v. 0.04) but with a slightly lower xG (0.01 v. 0.03).

Fixtures wise, you know that I like Man Utd's, having already included Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial in my squad so I've currently got a Man Utd triple-up (which I wouldn't have expected when I started these posts).

It's also an option to play Luke Shaw in Gameweek 19 when Trippier travels to Arsenal with Man Utd hosting Bournemouth.

🔚 The Final Defender

With £5.2m left to spend, I'll see if there's a defender who rotates well with Perraud and Shaw otherwise I'll go with Bueno and keep £1.3m in the bank to make upgrades later (or during some tinkering between now and the deadline). So my final player ratings are (once again excluding players that I don't want to include):

It appears that a Spurs option for their Double in Gameweek 20 is something that my ratings like but I'd need to spend £4.9m (£1m more than Bueno) for a player that has a reasonable chance of starting and only makes it into my team in a single Gameweek.

It's a similar story for Gabriel who I could spend the remainder of my budget on for a very small improvement.

Mbabu (who almost certainly won't play) and Colwill (who is only playing in Webster's absence) aren't appealing and whilst I like Castagne, he's another one who provides very little in the way of an upgrade in Gameweek 20.

This all leads me to opting for an ultra-budget option in Hugo Bueno who can sit as my 3rd sub most weeks although Wolves do have a couple of fixtures that could tempt me (to promote him to 2nd sub).

17	18	19	20	21	22

👪 My Gameweek 17 Squad

So that wraps up my Gameweek 17 squad and with it, my final pre-deadline post. The chances are that I'll tinker away between now and Monday as I tempt myself with a Chelsea attacker or have to react to the announcement of Brighton's Double Gameweek but this is it:

Position	Player(s)	Price (£m)	17	18	19	20	21	22
GK	Raya + Kepa	9.1	Kepa	Kepa	Kepa	Kepa	Raya	Raya
DEF	Trippier	5.9
DEF	James	5.8
DEF	Shaw	4.8
DEF	Perraud	4.4
DEF	Bueno	3.9
MID	Salah	12.8
MID	Foden	8.3
MID	Rashford	6.7
MID	Ødegaard	6.4
MID	Pereira	4.6
FWD	Haaland	12.2
FWD	Darwin	9.0
FWD	Martial	6.7

£1.2m in the Bank.

💪 Team Strength

So looking at possible rotation with my budget selections, I have the following teams for Gameweeks 17 to 22 (red is my bench, green is my captain):

Underneath each Gameweek is my total team "strength" and it's looking great for 17 to 20. Gameweek 21 currently looks like a difficult one for me, due to Liverpool v. Chelsea (4 players) and Arsenal v. Man Utd (4 players), but it's also a Gameweek where Ben Crellin is predicting that a couple of Doubles will drop and I've got a few transfers between now and then to react to any news (if it comes after the GW17 deadline).

🗨 What do you think?

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts so please share them with me in the comments below.

📜 Previous Gameweek 17 Posts

• 🖺 FPL: Time to Think About Gameweek 17
• 🖺 FPL: Squad Building for Gameweek 17 - Premium(s) and Goalkeepers
• 🖺 FPL: Squad Building for Gameweek 17 - Completing the Core
• 🖺 FPL: Squad Building for Gameweek 17 - Midfielders and Forwards

ⓘ Imagery Information

_{All images have been created and edited with the intention of reaching a point of "fair use". To reach this point, I use multiple online tools (primarily Lunapic and removebg) as well as an old version of Adobe Photoshop, incorporating my own "branding" and imagery style. If you are of the opinion that any of the images used infringe on copyright, please highlight this in the comments and I will make best endeavours to alleviate any concerns.}