Defenders most likely to get Bonus Points (Baseline BPS)

[Stemania]

International break: Here's the updated 'CARVER' M/BBPS numbers (so minutes per BBPS now without yellows/reds included):

Team: 1st (2nd, 3rd,...)
ARS: Monreal 5.18, (Koscielny 5.42, Mustafi 5.56, Kolasinac 6.00, Bellerín 7.23)
BHA: Duffy 6.24, (Bruno 7.01, Dunk 7.02, Suttner 8.08)
BOU: Aké 5.68, (Francis 6.09, A Smith 6.46, Daniels 6.47, S Cook 6.97)
BUR: Mee 6.47, (Ward 6.54, Tarkowski 6.69, Lowton 7.17)
CHE: Azpilicueta 4.97, (Luiz 5.74, Rüdiger 5.77, Cahill 6.11, Alonso 6.74, Moses 10.26)
CPL: Sakho 5.23, (Fosu-Mensah 5.90, Dann 6.43, Ward 7.25, PVA 7.47, Schlupp 10.13) 
EVE: Jagielka 5.40, (Keane 5.55, Williams 6.28, Baines 7.45) 
HUD: Schindler 5.41, (Zanka 6.97, Löwe 7.03, Smith 7.98)
LEI: Maguire 5.59, (Fuchs 6.33, Simpson 6.91, Morgan 7.80)
LIV: Gomez 4.71, (Moreno 5.26, Klavan 5.42, Matip 6.07, Lovren 6.47)
MCI: Otamendi11 5.46, (Stones 5.74, Walker 6.10)
MUN: Jones 5.14, (Bailly 6.32, Smalling 6.74, Valencia 7.23)
NEW: Lejeune 5.88, (Clark 6.58, Yedlin 6.77, Lascelles 7.71, Manquillo 9.00)
SOT: van Dijk 5.21, (Yoshida 5.87, Bertrand 7.09, Cedric 8.19)
STK: Zouma 5.84, (Cameron 6.96, Pieters 8.38, Wimmer 8.39, Shawcross 8.57)
SWA: Fernández 6.39, (Naughton 6.46, Mawson 6.69, Olsson 8.49)
TOT: Vertonghen 5.38, (Trippier 5.41, Davies 5.65, Sánchez 5.95, Alderweireld 6.34)
WAT: Femenía 5.27, (Britos 6.41, Kabasele 7.21, Holebas 7.32, Mariappa 7.33)
WBA: Evans 6.30, (Nyom 6.57, Hegazi 7.31, Dawson 7.41, Gibbs 8.23)
WHU: Zabaleta 6.06, (Reid 6.21, Ogbonna 6.75, Fonte 7.11, Cresswell 8.15)

As before, underlined is anyone who's started at least 9 of the 11 games so far (and I filtered out anyone who hasn't started at least 5 games). The lower the score the better. (As usual data is borrowed from the excellent FFS Members area.)
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Movers and shakers:

Mee has notably clawed right back and overtaken Ward at Burnley. Sakho, Lejeune, VVD & Evans have flown straight in as top BPS-getters in their teams (perhaps expectedly). Gomez and Zouma have made great strides, taking the top spots in their teams from non-regulars. Vertongen & Trippier have edged ahead at Spurs.
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Standouts?:

The players who are miles ahead of their teammates (over 1 M/BPS better) are

Schindler (HUD), Jones (MUN), Zouma (STO) and Femenia (WAT).

The best performing regulars in the whole league so far has a new surprise leader:

Gomez 4.7, Azpili 5.0, Jones 5.1, Monreal/VVD/Sakho 5.2.
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Any other observations/suggestions to improve the stat?

[Tacalabala]

Femenia is very tempting, fixtures are not too bad either.

[Aldershot Rejects]

Do we know if Gomez is nailed on. Great for Liverpool's home games if he is.

[No Way Jose]

Thanks stem. ATM I have jones and azpi. Couldn't bring myself to bring in Gomez this week. Having a Liverpool defender just feels dirty

[Pulpy]

Sakho making Dann a slightly poorer pick then but he is still pretty decent given his attacking threat.

Edit to add Ake is an interesting alternative to Daniels.

[Notned]

Do we know if Gomez is nailed on. Great for Liverpool's home games if he is.

Brought him in a couple of weeks ago and haven't been let down so far. Definitely looks a better player than TAA, steadier anyway, and can also play at CB which possibly increases his chances of minutes with Lovren always looking a mistake away from being dropped.

[Mav3rick]

Thanks for the update there Stem, I'm surprised by the new leader but I suspect his future in out squads is largely dictated by Clyne's injury/return, which is not looking like it will be imminent, based on this snippet from last week:

http://metro.co.uk/2017/11/06/liverpool ... k-7057131/

[Mav3rick]

And now it seems Clyne has had back surgery, and is out for 3 months:

https://mobile.twitter.com/_pauljoyce/s ... 4470816768

[MPTree]

I'd like to squeeze Gomez in on my WC, but presumably there's a slight risk he sees rotation with TAA at some point?

Veering a little off topic, but presumably Milner may still come in for Moreno? I notice they both started in GWs 9 & 10, Milner filling in for Wijnaldum one week and Can the other (I think?). Moreno has played more minutes in total than Gomez, takes more shots, and is 0.1 cheaper. Just wondering if Gomez is definitely preferable.

[Stemania]

Updated CARVER M/BBPS numbers (minutes per BBPS without yellows/reds included) up to the end of GW18:

Team: 1st (2nd, 3rd,...)
ARS: Koscielny 5.11, (Mustafi 5.21, Monreal 5.29, Kolasinac 6.70, Bellerín 7.20)
BHA: Duffy 6.41, (Bong 6.75, Bruno 6.80, Dunk 6.95, Suttner 7.94)
BOU: Aké 5.89, (Francis 5.94, Daniels 6.20, A Smith 6.60, S Cook 6.81)
BUR: Ward 6.60, (Mee 6.64, Tarkowski 7.26, Lowton 7.50) - [Bardsley, 6.43, 5 games]
CHE: Azpilicueta 5.13, (Christensen 5.35, Rüdiger 5.66, Luiz 5.74, Cahill 6.16, Alonso 6.84, Moses 7.76)
CPL: Sakho 5.35, (Tomkins 5.94, Fosu-Mensah 6.20, Ward 6.99, Dann 7.02, Van Aanholt 7.39, Schlupp 8.14)
EVE: Kenny 5.44, (Jagielka 5.55, Keane 5.66, Williams 6.05, Martina 6.23, Holgate 7.36, Baines 7.80)
HUD: Schindler 5.63, (Zanka 7.26, Lowe 7.30, Smith 7.88)
LEI: Maguire 5.49, (Fuchs 6.51, Chilwell 6.63, Simpson 7.79, Morgan 7.94)
LIV: Gomez 4.79, (Milner 5.09, Moreno 5.35, Klavan 5.42, Matip 5.94, Lovren 6.10) - [TAA 5.5, Robertson 6.2, 6 games]
MCI: Kompany 5.42, (Otamendi 5.56, Stones 5.84, Walker 5.96) - [Danilo 5.05, 5 games]
MUN: Jones 5.14, (Bailly 6.32, Smalling 6.40, Valencia 6.76)
NEW: Lejeune 6.17, (Yedlin 6.56, Clark 6.64, Lascelles 7.42, Manquillo 8.88) - [Mbemba 5.35, 6 games]
SOT: Hoedt 5.26, (van Dijk 5.28, Yoshida 6.31, Bertrand 6.76, Cedric 7.71) - [Stephens 5.93, 6 games]
STK: Zouma 5.83, (Wimmer 7.21, Cameron 7.44, Shawcross 8.42, Pieters 8.65) - [Martins Indi 5.76, 5 games]
SWA: Fernández 6.36, (Naughton 6.47, Mawson 6.61, van der Hoorn 6.72, Olsson 9.33)
TOT: Trippier 5.16, (Davies 5.43, Vertonghen 5.74, DSanchez 5.99, Alderweireld 6.38) - [Aurier 9.27, 6 games]
WAT: Femenía 5.08, (Britos 6.54, Kabasele 7.24, Holebas 7.85, Mariappa 8.12) - [Prodl 6.42, Zeegelaar 5.25, 6/5 games]
WBA: Evans 6.21, (Hegazi 6.70, Nyom 6.88, Dawson 7.48, Gibbs 7.52)
WHU: Masuaku 5.76, (Ogbonna 6.39, Zabaleta 6.56, Reid 6.61, Fonte 7.11, Cresswell 7.27)

As before, underlined is anyone who's started at least 15 of the 18 games so far (and I filtered out anyone who hasn't started at least 7 games). The lower the score the better. I added some players of interest in blue [square brackets] that haven't played so many games. (As usual data is borrowed from the excellent FFS Members area.)
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Movers and shakers:

Monreal loses his Arsenal bonus crown to Koscielny (and Mustafi), Ward and Mee continue their slugfest at Burnley, swapping positions again. Notably, Kenny jumps straight in at the top at Everton - though could this be because his run has coincided with better defensive performances? Kompany and Hoedt play enough games to displace the leaders at their clubs, Trippier continuous his improvement, edging ahead at Spurs. Masuaku flies straight in atop of West Ham - like Kenny, this could be down to entering the team at an advantageous time.
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Standouts?:

The players who are miles ahead of their teammates (over 1 M/BBPS better) continue to be the Fab Four (but now with an added Leicester Man making it the Fab Five):

Schindler (HUD), Maguire (LEI), Jones (MUN), Zouma (STO) and Femenia (WAT).

Amazingly, Joe Gomez holds his position as the best performing regular in the whole league over what has become a tight group:

Gomez 4.8, Azpili/Femenia/Jones/Koscielny/Milner 5.1.

[dino1980]

Thanks Stem, appreciate the hard work. So when are you getting Jones back in?

[Stemania]

So when are you getting Jones back in?

If Christensen weren't doing so well in his stead, very quickly. Maybe I can use Chelsea's tough GW22 as an excuse

[Aldershot Rejects]

Thanks Stem, really helpful.

[Hotstepper]

So when are you getting Jones back in?

If Christensen weren't doing so well in his stead, very quickly. Maybe I can use Chelsea's tough GW22 as an excuse

I've been considering next week selling Azpa and Naughton next week and splitting it across Christensen and Jones.

[blahblah]

Thanks Stem, really helpful.

Yep, I used it for Schindler....

Dood job I checked Dunk on FPl - 3, yes THREE OG's

[wonkypenguin]

Apologies if this belongs elsewhere, but...

I just watched the Chelsea game, and apart from one or two tackles his name was barely mentioned in the commentary. Are last minute tackles really worth that many BPS? And if not, what else is he actually doing to hoover them up game after game?

[primitive man]

You watched a different match to me - I thought he would get Mom but it went to Hazard (but then again he did get 2 goals). I think the saying is he had his man in his pocket. He just read the game and shored up the back - he didn't get forward as much as Ive seen in some games but he is very consistent and I think out of the team he has most mins played.

[math!]

Twice he denied a tap-in. He play multiple balls into the box from deep. He was immense today as usual.

[Stemania]

All he really needs to do is be better at gathering bonus that his teamates, that's the thing. He has been among the top players in the league this season for BPS gathering though, but that isn't so important a fact as the distance to his teammates. As it happens he isn't actually that far ahead of his teammates this season, not of Christensen anyway - a major factor for BPS has been the minutes he's played, with Christensen pulled early again today for example.

This season the reasons for Azpi's BPS accruement might be quite surprising - I was looking into this recently and he's actually got easily the worst rate of CBIs (clearences, blocks and interceptions) of all Chelsea CBs (18.6 mins per CBI, vs 13.5, 15.5, 16.3, 12.0 of the other CBs). And the second worst recovery rate (18.3 mins per recovery, vs 14.4, 13.0, 12.7, only ahead of Cahill's rubbish 20.8)!!! That's what colloquially/in prev seasons he's been good at and are some major contributors to BPS, but not this season.

This year the main factor for his bonus points has actually been chance creation - a ridiculous 23 chances created, 9 of them 'big' chances. The other CBs by comparison have created 8 chances combined, only 1 of them 'big'! Helped by every now and again playing RWB no doubt, but basically those long diagonal balls into Morata etc, that the other CBs don't do. Even with that, he's only just ahead of Christensen in total minutes per BPS, 5.3 to 5.4, but way ahead in minutes played.

(Merged with existing thread btw)

[Ruth_NZ]

Azpi is huge on CBIs when playing RB. That's because his speed of press is world class. But when he is playing RCB he isn't asked to press in the same way, Moses should be doing the 1st press that side. I think that's why Azpi's CBI numbers are down on what they used to be.

As for the chance creation, he does that better from RCB than from RWB actually. He has great quality of final ball when he has time, and the Conte system is designed to give him that time from the RCB position. When playing RWB he'll more likely be looking for a ball in to Pedro/Willian, who are more likely to provide the cross.

In the end, the FPL BP mechanism is what it is, and I think Stemania is more on top of the detail than me. I'm just glad to see Azpi get well rewarded, however that happens, because he is a simply brilliant defender.

[math!]

The fact that we now have Giroud, who is an excellent target man, as an alternate striker option should bode well for his continued production of those famous Dave Diagonals.

[wonkypenguin]

Aha! I knew there must be a thread for this.

Makes (a little bit!) more sense to me now... thanks for the explanations... appreciated

[Ruth_NZ]

The fact that we now have Giroud, who is an excellent target man, as an alternate striker option should bode well for his continued production of those famous Dave Diagonals.

I think Giroud is the striker Conte wanted (that type). Dzeko would maybe have been better but I have always rated Giroud anyway.

My suspicion is that Giroud will be 1st choice ahead of Morata for the rest of this season. Or at least on equal terms.