Tactically, it’s simple. Maxim De Cuyper is top of the Fantasy Premier League player rankings after nine gameweeks, with 69 points. Erling Haaland is second, with 68. One point. Brighton’s defender ahead of Manchester City’s striker.
Except the game has always listed him as a defender, while at Brighton he plays very high up. I know that one. I’ve got a left back who has been down as a left back in my folder for three seasons and who I find at every match in the opposition’s penalty area. The difference is that our club delegate (the volunteer who handles the match paperwork) doesn’t give him points for it. He gives him a remark.
And the rules help. A defender gets four points if he plays at least sixty minutes, stoppage time excluded, without conceding while he’s on the pitch. So De Cuyper scores like a striker and collects the defender’s bonus. I’m looking at his record: seventeen points against Aston Villa (4-0, a goal, an assist, clean sheet included), eleven at Coventry City (0-5, an assist), fifteen at Sunderland (a goal, nothing conceded), nine at Manchester City (0-1, an assist, nothing conceded). And then zero at Chelsea, beaten 4-3, and a single point at Liverpool, beaten 2-0.
On those two nights, I don’t judge. When we ship four goals, I don’t count my left back’s points either. I count the players still around for the cone of chips.
A defender who attacks. We used to call that a distracted defender.
The best part, for me, is the sixty-minute condition. With us, by sixty minutes I’ve already made two substitutions so the lads can go and pick up the kids. My clean sheet depends on the parents’ rota.
I run that on Tuesday: the full back pushing up, the block holding firm behind him. When we’ve got eleven, that is. And I’ve already told the delegate to put me down as a defender in his folder, in case I have to come on.
It’s true, we checked: VoetbalPrimeur.be.
