Over 95% of Dream Team managers are ignoring last season’s best defender

ONLY one defender earned over 300 points last season, Daniel Munoz (£5.5m).

Such an achievement should ensure immense popularity in the build-up to the 2025/26 campaign but, for whatever reason, that’s not the case.

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Dream TeamWill Munoz punish his doubters?[/caption]

At the time of writing, the Colombian wing-back features in just 4.8% of teams.

For comparison, that makes him equally as popular as Maxim De Cuyper (£3m), Brighton’s new left-back.

The last edition of our SCOUT REPORT series seeks to discover why so many Dream Team managers are staying clear of Munoz ahead of the new season.

There’s no doubt the 29-year-old comes at a steep price; he’s the joint-most expensive asset in his position alongside Virgil van Dijk (£5.5m) and Josko Gvardiol (£5.5m).

But it’s interesting that both the Liverpool and Manchester City centre-backs are among the top ten most selected defenders in the game despite their price tags even though they accumulated fewer points than Munoz last term.

GettyMunoz was instrumental in Palace’s historic FA Cup win[/caption]

Perhaps gaffers are perturbed by Crystal Palace’s opening weekend fixture, a trip to Stamford Bridge to face the Club World Cup winners.

The Eagles are also due to face Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa in August, two teams who also finished in the top seven last season.

However, while Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are strong defensively, their attacking stats are nothing to write home about.

In fact, Forest only scored one goal in seven pre-season friendlies this summer.

This makes them a favourable opponent for Dream Team defenders this month.

Forest desperately struggled for goals during pre-seasonPA

September brings league games against Sunderland and West Ham before a trickier match-up against Liverpool – Oliver Glasner’s side just edged out the Reds in the Community Shield.

It’s worth noting here that Palace players will not earn points in their Conference League play-off as scoring starts at the league phase for all European competitions.

Even so, Munoz’s schedule is not as bad as some are making out.

Dream Team bosses who played the game last season should not need reminding of Munoz’s attributes.

He scored six goals and provided eight assists in all competitions; no defender registered more goal involvements.

But his attacking potency only tells half the story.

Only Noussair Mazraoui (£4m) made more tackles than Munoz’s tally of 152 among all players.

Add in 17 clean sheets (ranked joint-third among defenders) and he ticks almost every box.

AlamyNot to be underestimated[/caption]

Munoz’s disciplinary record is a concern and he doesn’t pick up many bonus points but the positives far outweigh the negatives.

It may simply be the case that premium defenders are unaffordable luxuries ahead of Gameweek 1 but it’s remarkable that a top performer in his position is being overlooked by 95% of gaffers.

It will be interesting to see whether Munoz’s ownership has increased come 8pm on Friday.

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