GUIDE / THE DEFENCE SUM
How the defence modifier is calculated
Which marks count, which stay out, and the two mistakes that spoil the sum when it is done by hand.
How to use it, in thirty seconds
Type the goalkeeper's mark and those of the defenders you fielded, one per box. A player who did not play — no mark — is left empty: it is not a zero, it simply does not exist for this sum.
The result appears as you type: the defence average and the points added to your matchday total. Below it you also see how far the next threshold is, which is the figure that matters when deciding whether to change a defender next week.
Marks, not fantasy points: the first mistake
The modifier uses raw marks, not fantasy points. A defender who gets a 6 and scores is worth 9 in the team total, but stays a 6 in the defence average: the goal has already been paid once, and is not counted twice.
This is the most common mistake when doing the sum by hand, because the column you read for the total is precisely the fantasy-points one. It changes the result in no symbolic way: a single defender's goal counted by accident moves the average by almost a full point, and can hand you three bonus points your league does not recognise.
Why there are five boxes and only three count
Only the three highest marks among the defenders enter the average. Fielding four or five does not dilute anything: it buys a margin, because if one defender leaves without a mark in the fifth minute and only two remain, the modifier does not apply at all.
This is the one point where the modifier also decides your line-up: with a back three you are betting the modifier on a single injury. People who use it field four or five defenders even when the formation would not ask for it.
A worked example
Goalkeeper 6, defenders 6.5 — 6 — 7 — 5.5. The three highest defender marks are 7, 6.5 and 6: the 5.5 stays out. The average is (6 + 7 + 6.5 + 6) divided by four, that is 6.38, and the modifier is +1.
Now change one thing only: the goalkeeper gets 7 instead of 6. The average becomes (7 + 7 + 6.5 + 6) divided by four, that is 6.63, and the bonus goes from +1 to +3. Two points of difference for half a mark from the goalkeeper: that is why, in a league with the modifier, the goalkeeper stops being whatever is left of the budget.
Note what did not change: raising the 5.5 to a 7 would have moved nothing, because that mark does not enter the average anyway. The fourth defender is insurance, not a contribution.
The variants, and why to check first
The most common version awards +1 from 6, +3 from 6.5, +4 from 7, +6 from 7.5 and +8 from 8. But some leagues exclude the goalkeeper from the average, others start awarding from 5.5, others count four defenders instead of three: all three are options here, and the sum updates accordingly.
If your league's rulebook does not say which version it uses, now is the time to write it. The modifier is the rule that causes the most arguments once the season starts, precisely because every platform implements it its own way, and two lines written in August are worth an hour of argument in February.