Maxence Lacroix: Chelsea’s New Fantasy Premier League Asset

Chelsea have paid for presence this summer. Fantasy Premier League managers are being asked to do the same.

Maxence Lacroix arrives at Stamford Bridge priced at £6.0m in 2026/27 Fantasy, a premium tag for a defender who, on the surface, has never been a headline act for goals or assists. One goal and two assists in each of his last two seasons at Crystal Palace does not scream must‑own.

Look a little closer and the picture changes.

Built for a three-man defence

Under Xabi Alonso, Chelsea are expected to be tactically flexible, but his past at Bayer Leverkusen suggests a comfort with a back three and wing-backs. If he leans that way in pre-season, Lacroix is perfectly built for it.

At Palace, the Frenchman operated in the middle of a three in a 3-4-2-1, the anchor in and out of possession. He quietly stacked up 154 points last season, seventh among all defenders, built on 11 clean sheets, a sprinkling of attacking returns and, crucially, a mountain of defensive contribution (DC) points.

DC, introduced to Fantasy last season, has quickly exposed which defenders are constantly in the thick of it. Lacroix is one of them.

Had the metric existed in 2024/25, he would have banked 34 DC points, a figure topped by only four defenders. In 2025/26, with the system officially live, he went up a gear: 40 DC points, bettered only by Marcos Senesi (50) and James Tarkowski (44), both also priced at £6.0m this season.

Across the last two campaigns, only Tarkowski and Lacroix have finished in the top five defenders for DC in both years. That is elite company and a clear indicator of his reliability in the high-volume actions FPL now rewards.

Numbers that travel well

Consistency is the key here.

Starts, minutes, involvement – Lacroix has ticked every box. He started 35 league matches in 2024/25 and 36 in 2025/26. Across those two seasons, he has been one of the most dependable centre-backs in the game, both for his manager and for Fantasy managers who value availability as much as explosiveness.

For those who want a defender they can pick in Gameweek 1 and forget about, he fits the profile. The question is whether Alonso’s Chelsea will give him the same defensive platform that Palace did.

Pre-season will give the first clues. If Alonso settles on a three-man defence, Lacroix’s DC profile suggests he will be at the heart of it, hoovering up points in a role that suits him perfectly.

Aerial menace hiding in plain sight

The real intrigue with Lacroix, though, lies at the other end of the pitch.

His headline attacking numbers are modest: one goal, two assists in 2024/25; one goal, two assists again in 2025/26. But the underlying data from set-pieces tells a different story and hints at a ceiling he has not yet hit.

Last season, Lacroix produced 15 headed shots from set-pieces and 23 total shots from set-pieces. Both figures placed him among the top 10 defenders in Fantasy. They also matched the output of Arsenal’s Gabriel, who turned the same volume into three goals and five assists.

Go back a year and the volume is even more striking. In 2024/25, Lacroix led all defenders for shots from set-pieces with 27, and he also topped the charts for headed efforts with 20. Only Nikola Milenkovic and Virgil van Dijk matched that aerial output, and they turned it into five and three goals respectively.

Across those two seasons, Lacroix averaged 17.5 headed shots from set-pieces per campaign. For a centre-back, that is the profile of a player who should be scoring more than a single goal a year.

The opportunity is obvious. At Palace, he was already a magnet for deliveries. At Chelsea, with higher-quality service and more attacking set-pieces to attack, the numbers suggest there is room for a breakout.

Chelsea’s missing weapon

Chelsea’s existing centre-backs underline why Lacroix has been targeted.

Last season, only two Chelsea defenders managed more than three headed shots from set-pieces: Trevoh Chalobah and Wesley Fofana. Chalobah recorded nine headed efforts and 12 total shots from set-pieces across 31 starts. Fofana managed six headed shots and eight total attempts in 20 starts.

Lacroix, by comparison, produced 23 set-piece shots and 15 headers for Palace in 2025/26 alone.

The rest of Chelsea’s backline offered little in the air. Tosin Adarabioyo, Malo Gusto and Reece James combined for just five headed shots from set-pieces. James did manage 10 shots from dead-ball situations, but none with his head.

Levi Colwill is the one internal comparison who comes close. In his breakout 2024/25 campaign, Colwill produced 14 shots from set-pieces, nine of them headers, across 35 starts. Over the same season, Lacroix posted 27 and 20 respectively from an identical number of starts.

Strip it back to the last two years and the contrast is clear: Lacroix has been one of the league’s most active aerial targets from set-pieces, while Chelsea have largely lacked that profile.

With Chalobah linked with a move away and Fofana sidelined until September, the pathway is clear for a back three featuring Lacroix, James and Colwill. In that structure, the Frenchman instantly becomes the primary aerial threat among the centre-backs.

Price, structure and risk

So, is he the Chelsea defender to own?

At £6.0m, Lacroix sits in the premium bracket. For many managers, that price point will be reserved for full-backs with penalties or set-pieces, or centre-backs with proven double-digit goal threat. Lacroix has not yet delivered that level of attacking return, but his DC output and set-piece volume make a compelling case.

If you want a “set and forget” defender – someone to start every week while you pour funds into midfield and attack – Lacroix ticks a lot of boxes, especially if Alonso locks in a back three.

He offers:

• Elite DC numbers over a two-season sample
• Near ever-present availability
• Aerial volume comparable to some of the league’s most productive goal-scoring centre-backs

The alternatives at Chelsea are cheaper, but come with their own caveats.

Colwill at £5.0m is the standout budget route if he can reclaim a regular starting role after an injury-hit 2025/26. His 2024/25 data shows he can carry genuine set-piece threat, and if Alonso opts for a back four, he may become the more attractive option from a value perspective.

James at £5.5m remains a Fantasy favourite in theory, but his recent injury history has eroded trust. One subtle positive for both James and Colwill is Chelsea’s lack of European football this season, which should reduce the midweek load and, in turn, the risk of soft-tissue setbacks.

Lacroix, though, is the constant. The player whose game is built on repeatable actions Fantasy now rewards, and whose aerial numbers hint that his goal tally has room to grow.

The final decision comes down to how aggressively you want to spend at the back. Pay the premium for a defender who does a bit of everything, or chase value and hope Alonso’s system spreads the points more evenly.

If Chelsea do line up with three centre-backs and a raft of set-pieces aimed at their new Frenchman, the answer might become obvious very quickly.