Chris Richards

PitchKeep Take · The Premier

Chris Richards is a defender for Crystal Palace, age 26, £5.0m. The Premier ranks him 56th overall by splitting Sleeper BPL 2025 (#72, 140.8 points) with the consensus of 3 other boards (57.0). The industry still has him 15 spots ahead of the 2025/26 Sleeper count. The Premier pays that reputation something, not everything. Brand does not outrun a down year, and a down year does not erase a player Crystal Palace still builds around.

The 2025/26 Premier League line is 31 starts and 2825 minutes, 1 goals and 0 assists, 11 clean sheets, 42 goals against, 54 tackles and 257 CBI. Official FPL scored it at 128 points (3.9 per match) with 5 bonus. Sleeper's table turned the same counting stats into 140.8. Defenders get 10 a goal, 7 an assist, 6 a clean sheet, and −2 a goal against. CBI at 0.4 and tackles at 1 are how a centre-back cracks the overall 50.

Underlying: 2.42 xG, 1.56 xA, 3.98 xGI and -1.6 above expected assists. The defensive events are the floor: 54 tackles, 257 clearances/blocks/interceptions, 11 shutouts. Sleeper is built to notice that. ICT and xGI boards are not, which is why a centre-back's spread on this board is usually ugly and still informative. The friendliest board is RotoWire FPL 400 at 35; the coldest is FPL Price Board at 283.

Market: £5.0m, 10 boards on the file. That is leftover money for a Premier-ranked name. If the minutes hold, this board already voted. FPL's own EP-next is 2.2. ICT 107.6.

Instruction: he is a starter in deep Sleeper and a squad/rotation piece in 10-team FPL. Pay Premier #56 money, not a leftover 2024 reputation, not waiver dust. Nearby on The Premier: Marc Guéhi, Jan Paul van Hecke, Benjamin Sesko. Versus The Pitch (Sleeper-only #72), the hybrid moves him up to #56. That move is the third list doing its job.

He is 26, which on this board is neither a dart nor a warning label. Prime-age defenders get ranked on what they just did and whether Crystal Palace still gives them the ball. 2825 minutes says yes. The 2026/27 FPL price (£5.0m) is the app's guess at whether that continues. The Premier is the blend of that guess and the box score.

Full-backs and centre-backs separate on this board by attacking events. 1 goals and 0 assists are how a defender outruns his GA column. Without those, you are betting 11 clean sheets and the CBI stream (257) against 42 goals against at −2 a piece. Crystal Palace's 2026/27 defensive shape is therefore half of this player's rank. The other half already happened, across 31 starts.

How to use the file: The Pitch is the Sleeper-only 400 (he is #72 there). The Premier is the 50/50 with every other board we track. Attack, Midfield, Defence, and Keepers re-rank the same Sleeper table by position. BK Value on this page follows The Premier when you are on the hybrid calculator and The Pitch when you are on the Sleeper calculator. Same curve either way - 12,000 at 1.01.