Fantasy Premier League Rankings: Top Defenders

Written by

Updated on August 2, 2015 9:09PM EST

We're now less than a week away from kickoff to the 2015/16 Premier League season, which means it's time we start finalizing the rosters we'll be using in season-long games. We've already discussed some strategies for draft formats, while also hitting on auctions. These rankings reflect our writers' opinions on season-long salary cap formats, such as the Premier League's official game and ESPN's Premier Fantasy, though they can also be used as cheatsheets for draft or auction leagues (just note that the rankings were based on the official FPL scoring, so if your league has a different points setup, please feel free to leave a question below and we'll be sure to get back to you quickly).

We kicked off with the goalkeepers, and we now move on to the men who make the keepers look good (or bad). Points were assigned to each player based on their ranking by each contributor: 30 points for a first place vote, 29 points for a second place vote, 28 points for a third place vote and so on.

Branislav Ivanovic was the top scoring defender last season in the Premier League's official game, with the 10th ranked player, Seamus Coleman, coming in 49 points behind, an average of nearly 1.3 points per gameweek. Not a huge margin, but not insignificant. However, the scores bunch more as you move further down the list, with Neil Taylor finishing 10 spots behind Coleman but by only 21 points. And 10 spots lower to round out the top-30 was Eric Dier, who finished 16 points behind Taylor (and 86 behind Ivanovic).

Here's the RotoWire Top 30 Defenders for the 2015/16 Premier League season:

Rank	Player	Pts	Rank	Player	Pts	Rank	Player	Pts
1	Branislav Ivanovic	208	11	Aaron Cresswell	109	21	Danny Rose	74
2	Leighton Baines	201	12	Ryan Bertrand	101	22	Vincent Kompany	70
3	John Terry	179	13	Martin Skrtel	101	23	Antonio Valencia	55
4	Nathaniel Clyne	174	14	Pablo Zabaleta	100	24	Toby Alderweireld	54
5	Laurent Koscielny	154	15	Phil Jagielka	91	25	Nacho Monreal	49
6	Kieran Trippier	140	16	Per Mertesacker	90	26	Cedric	43
7	Seamus Coleman	134	17	Hector Bellerin	88	27	Chris Smalling	37
8	Gary Cahill	126	18	Daryl Janmaat	84	28	Kieran Gibbs	34
9	Cesar Azpilicueta	126	19	Joleon Lescott	79	29	Ashley Williams	32
10	Aleksandar Kolarov	110	20	Jose Fonte	76	30	Jan Vertonghen	27

And here is how the voting broke down:

Rnk	Laird	Gottlieb	Mosinski	Pitner	McIntyre	Radune	Trainor
1	Ivanovic	Ivanovic	Baines	Ivanovic	Ivanovic	Ivanovic	Baines
2	Trippier	Baines	Ivanovic	Baines	Trippier	Koscielny	Ivanovic
3	Clyne	Trippier	Cahill	Terry	Baines	Baines	Clyne
4	Baines	Terry	Kolarov	Koscielny	Clyne	Mertesacker	Trippier
5	Terry	Clyne	Terry	Coleman	Bertrand	Terry	Terry
6	Kolarov	Koscielny	Skrtel	Kompany	Zabaleta	Zabaleta	Bertrand
7	Bellerin	Bellerin	Coleman	Cresswell	Azpilicueta	Clyne	Fonte
8	Cedric	Kolarov	Bellerin	Skrtel	Jagielka	Azpilicueta	Azpilicueta
9	Coleman	Janmaat	Trippier	Zabaleta	Cresswell	Alderweireld	Cahill
10	Cresswell	Azpilicueta	Clyne	Jagielka	Fonte	Clichy	Mertesacker
11	Koscielny	Cedric	Mertesacker	Clyne	Terry	Cahill	Jagielka
12	Bertrand	Valencia	Cresswell	Azpilicueta	Koscielny	Smalling	Lescott
13	Lescott	Cahill	Koscielny	Bertrand	Rose	Skrtel	Skrtel
14	Janmaat	Rose	Zabaleta	Amavi	Monreal	Vertonghen	Coleman
15	Azpilicueta	Coleman	Janmaat	Mertesacker	Darmian	Valencia	Koscielny
16	Cahill	van Aanholt	Kompany	Lescott	Coleman	Gibbs	Janmaat
17	Rose	Tabanou	Jagielka	Smalling	Janmaat	Coleman	Morgan
18	Monreal	Gibbs	Rose	Fonte	Kolarov	Kompany	Cresswell
19	Zabaleta	Bertrand	Lescott	Bellerin	Cahill	Debuchy	Rose
20	Alderweireld	Monreal	Valencia	Cahill	Lescott	Zouma	N. Taylor
21	Fonte	Cresswell	C. Dawson	Stones	A. Williams	Jagielka	O'Shea
22	Valencia	Kompany	Shaw	A. Williams	Alderweireld	Kolarov	Zabaleta
23	van Aanholt	Skrtel	Jenkinson	Kolarov	Kompany	Shawcross	Dann
24	Skrtel	Jenkinson	Rojo	Ward	Vertonghen	Sakho	A. Williams
25	A. Williams	Alderweireld	Gibbs	Alderweireld	Stones	Jones	C. Dawson
26	Mertesacker	Fonte	Francis	Trippier	G. Johnson	Bellerin	Kolarov
27	Jenkinson	Lescott	Debuchy	Monreal	Smalling	Monreal	Mangala
28	Tabanou	Vertonghen	Fonte	Luke Shaw	Caulker	Sagna	Moreno
29	Mings	Jagielka	Tyrone Mings	Shawcross	Skrtel	Shawcross	F. Fernandez
30	Jagielka	Mertesacker	Bertrand	Mings	Dann	Demichelis	Dier