{"id":5753,"date":"2025-08-08T11:54:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T11:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/fpl-budget-friendly-defenders-2025-2026\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T13:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:03:07","slug":"fpl-budget-friendly-defenders-2025-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/fpl-budget-friendly-defenders-2025-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"FPL – Budget-friendly Defenders 2025\/2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hitting the right budget defenders in FPL 2025\/26 frees up money for the Salah\/Haaland combo without breaking the structure. New this year is Defensive Contribution (DC)<\/strong>: 2 extra points for 10 total clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles<\/strong>. It especially boosts workhorses in the middle of the field and individual backs who rack up lots of defensive actions. <\/p>\n\n

What you need to know before you choose<\/h2>\n\n
    \n
  • Up-and-comers = value<\/strong>: Burnley, Leeds and Sunderland provide more 4.0 starters than usual.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • New roles\/managers<\/strong>: Thomas Frank at Spurs<\/strong> can push defensive numbers in a positive direction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n

    FPL 4.0 million defense players <\/h2>\n\n
    Spiller<\/th>Club<\/th>Price<\/th>Position<\/th>Status \/ Comment<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
    Maxime Est\u00e8ve<\/td>BUR<\/td>4.0 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Expected starter, strong DC base. Very popular among the promoted. <\/td><\/tr>
    Reinildo<\/td>SUN<\/td>4.0 million.<\/td>Left back<\/td>Experienced, fresh in, ready for game time.<\/td><\/tr>
    Jenson Seelt<\/td>SUN<\/td>4.0 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Nice DC ceiling; mentioned as 4.0 alternative.<\/td><\/tr>
    Gabriel Gudmundsson<\/td>LEE<\/td>4.0 million.<\/td>Left back<\/td>Offensive profile; good 2-pointer when he starts.<\/td><\/tr>
    Joe Rodon \/ Jaka Bijol<\/td>LEE<\/td>4.0 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Both can get many minutes; Bijol new and can rotate.<\/td><\/tr>
    Ayden Heaven<\/td>MUN<\/td>4.0 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Cheap United-CB; minutes depend on system\/injuries.<\/td><\/tr>
    Luka Vu\u0161kovi\u0107<\/td>TOT<\/td>4.0 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Great upside in the long run; hardly starts from GW1.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n

    Short recommendation:<\/strong> Est\u00e8ve + one Sunderland (Reinildo or<\/em> Seelt) is the safest bench base. Gudmundsson is your “hope to start” ticket. <\/p>\n\n

    FPL 4.5 million defense players <\/h2>\n\n
    Spiller<\/th>Club<\/th>Price<\/th>Position<\/th>Status \/ Comment<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
    Aaron Wan-Bissaka<\/td>WHU<\/td>4.5 million.<\/td>Wingback<\/td>Firm, nice DC volume and ok start program.<\/td><\/tr>
    Joachim Andersen<\/td>FUL<\/td>4.5 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Stable CB with dead ball threat; clear starter.<\/td><\/tr>
    Ezri Konsa<\/td>AVL<\/td>4.5 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Safe playtime; low ceiling, high floor.<\/td><\/tr>
    Micky van de Ven<\/td>TOT<\/td>4.5 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Fast profile, fits the system; attractive price.<\/td><\/tr>
    Marcos Senesi<\/td>BOU<\/td>4.5 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>DC-heavy and little goal threat.<\/td><\/tr>
    Sepp van den Berg<\/td>BRE<\/td>4.5 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Strong candidate to start; monitor pre-season.<\/td><\/tr>
    Michael Kayode<\/td>BRE<\/td>4.5 million.<\/td>Right back<\/td>Minutes is coming, but the competition is real.<\/td><\/tr>
    Marc Gu\u00e9hi<\/td>CRY<\/td>4.5 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Solid package solution; limited offensive output.<\/td><\/tr>
    Patrick Dorgu<\/td>MUN<\/td>4.5 million.<\/td>Left back<\/td>Exciting LB; minutes are continuously assessed.<\/td><\/tr>
    Maxim De Cuyper<\/td>BHA<\/td>4.5 million.<\/td>Left back<\/td>Offensive LB; great value if he cements the starting spot.<\/td><\/tr>
    Emmanuel Agbadou<\/td>WOL<\/td>4.5 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Physically strong; await defensive structure.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n

    Short recommendation:<\/strong> Wan-Bissaka and Andersen = set-and-forget value. Van de Ven\/De Cuyper provides upside at the same price. <\/p>\n\n

    FPL 5.0 million defense players <\/h2>\n\n
    Spiller<\/th>Club<\/th>Price<\/th>Position<\/th>Status \/ Comment<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
    Vitaliy Mykolenko<\/td>EVE<\/td>5.0 million.<\/td>Left back<\/td>Stable in organized defense; good DC base.<\/td><\/tr>
    Jake O’Brien<\/td>EVE<\/td>5.0 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Cheap way into the same structure; minutes look promising.<\/td><\/tr>
    Ola Aina \/ Neco Williams<\/td>NFO<\/td>5.0 million.<\/td>Wingbacks<\/td>Aina a little safer; Williams more offensive.<\/td><\/tr>
    Levi Colwill<\/td>HEC<\/td>5.0 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Cheap Chelsea entry; keep an eye out for game time.<\/td><\/tr>
    Maxence Lacroix<\/td>CRY<\/td>5.0 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>New CB anchor with fine underlying numbers and DC profile.<\/td><\/tr>
    Nathan Collins<\/td>BRE<\/td>5.0 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Starter and set-piece threat; however, the defense fluctuates.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n

    Short recommendation:<\/strong> Mykolenko is plug-in. Aina\/Williams and Lacroix are strong if you’re chasing DC points. <\/p>\n\n

    FPL 5.5 million defense players <\/h2>\n\n
    Spiller<\/th>Club<\/th>Price<\/th>Position<\/th>Status \/ Comment<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
    Nikola Milenkovi\u0107<\/td>NFO<\/td>5.5 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>DC magnet and goal threat; strong partnership with Murillo.<\/td><\/tr>
    Murillo<\/td>NFO<\/td>5.5 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Very high DC rate; one of the safer mid-price picks.<\/td><\/tr>
    James Tarkowski<\/td>EVE<\/td>5.5 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Bonus\/CBI monster; nice starting floor.<\/td><\/tr>
    Pedro Porro<\/td>TOT<\/td>5.5 million.<\/td>Wingback<\/td>Huge offensive upside and set pieces; little rotation risk.<\/td><\/tr>
    Virgil van Dijk<\/td>LIV<\/td>6.0 million.<\/td>Centerback<\/td>Great DC and dead ball threat; premium light.<\/td><\/tr>
    Jo\u0161ko Gvardiol<\/td>MCI<\/td>6.0 million.<\/td>LB\/CB<\/td>Stuck in the City, stable base.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n

    Short recommendation:<\/strong> Milenkovi\u0107\/Murillo<\/strong> and Tarkowski<\/strong> = high floor. Porro\/van Dijk\/Gvardiol<\/strong> = high ceiling in top clubs.<\/p>\n\n

    Quick building block strategy<\/h2>\n\n
      \n
    • Bench<\/strong>: 2\u00d7 4.0 million (e.g. Est\u00e8ve + a Sunderland), so you maximize the budget.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Start<\/strong>: 2-3\u00d7 4.5\/5.0m with DC floor (Wan-Bissaka, De Cuyper, Mykolenko\/Lacroix).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • One “anchor”:<\/strong> A 5.5-6.0m with a high base (Tarkowski\/van Dijk). This gives you the flexibility to jump on a strong wingback. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n

      Budget shelves are better than usual<\/strong> this year, and DC points<\/strong> are pushing more center backs into the playable category. Prioritize safe starters for clean sheets\/DC base and sprinkle one offensive back for ceiling. Follow pre-season minutes closely (especially De Cuyper, Dorgu and Kayode) and re-evaluate when we see the first DC distributors in GW1-2. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Hitting the right budget defenders in FPL 2025\/26 frees up money for the Salah\/Haaland combo without breaking the structure. New this year is Defensive Contribution (DC): 2 extra points for 10 total clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles. It especially boosts workhorses in the middle of the field and individual backs who rack up lots of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fpl-en","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured.webp",2560,1440,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-300x169.webp",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-768x432.webp",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-1024x576.webp",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-1536x864.webp",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-2048x1152.webp",2048,1152,true],"et-builder-post-main-image":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-400x250.webp",400,250,true],"et-builder-post-main-image-fullwidth":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-1080x675.webp",1080,675,true],"et-builder-portfolio-image":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-400x284.webp",400,284,true],"et-builder-portfolio-image-single":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-1080x608.webp",1080,608,true],"et-builder-gallery-image-portrait":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-400x516.webp",400,516,true],"extra-image-huge":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-1280x768.webp",1280,768,true],"extra-image-single-post":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-1280x640.webp",1280,640,true],"extra-image-medium":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-627x376.webp",627,376,true],"extra-image-small":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-440x264.webp",440,264,true],"extra-image-square-medium":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-440x440.webp",440,440,true],"extra-image-square-small":["https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FPL-budget-defenders-featured-150x150.webp",150,150,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jacob Olesen","author_link":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/author\/jaco9115\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Hitting the right budget defenders in FPL 2025\/26 frees up money for the Salah\/Haaland combo without breaking the structure. New this year is Defensive Contribution (DC): 2 extra points for 10 total clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles. It especially boosts workhorses in the middle of the field and individual backs who rack up lots of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5754,"href":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5753\/revisions\/5754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fantasyleague.gg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}