Over the next five gameweeks our model projects 18 points for Van Hecke and 15 for Ajayi, so Van Hecke is the pick.

What does this comparison account for?

Price, ownership, form, expected goals and assists per 90, minutes reliability, and the difficulty of each player's next five fixtures.

Van Hecke vs Ajayi

Head-to-head over the next 5 gameweeks. Our model favours Van Hecke by 3 projected points.

Van Hecke

SPURS · DEF · £4.9

projected points / 5 GW

Buy85%

COV (H)CHE (A)CRY (H)LEE (A)IPS (H)

Ajayi

HULL CITY · DEF · £4.2

projected points / 5 GW

Hold57%

FUL (A)BRE (H)IPS (H)ARS (A)BHA (H)

Stat by stat

£4.9Price£4.2

31Total points30

3.5Form1.5

4.4Points / game4.3

6.8%Owned13.4%

630Minutes603

1Goals1

0Assists0

0.69xG0.66

0.50xA0.03

34.4ICT15.6

2.6Avg FDR (5)3.2

18Projected pts15

The verdict

Van Hecke comes out ahead on the five-gameweek projection (18 vs 15), largely because of the fixture run (average difficulty 2.6) and better current form.

Buy — Van Hecke is one of the better DEF options for the next 5 gameweeks.

Hold — Ajayi is fine to keep, but there is no urgent case to bring him in.

More DEF comparisons

Van Hecke vs De Cuyper Van Hecke vs Vuskovic Van Hecke vs Tarkowski Van Hecke vs Bogle Van Hecke vs Calafiori Van Hecke vs Gvardiol