Working off the Members area Season Ticker I’ve looked at the fixtures for the coming season and found some good pairings of teams where mid to low priced players can rotate.
The obvious application of such pairings is to give you keepers that you can pick before the season starts and know that, barring injury, you won’t need to make any transfers in that position for some time. Likewise these could be part of your defensive unit – either two such pairings alongside a big hitter to give you three definite starters with good prospects at the back every week, or maybe two big hitters, a mid price pairing and a benchwarmer. If you’re feeling more adventurous you might use these to pair two cheap midfielders, a fifth midfielder and a third striker or even two strikers.
There is no hard and fast formula to Fantasy Football success. Having a fixed strategy can be one of the biggest mistakes. But using the information available gives you an advantage. By having players with complimentary fixtures you can avoid having to field players in tough games or having to make transfers to avoid horror match-ups, and instead focus on the form or fitness of the players you want to drop or bring in. It can also give you an edge in giving you players that are off other managers’ radars but might be able to fill a hole in your squad and with an easy fixture come into form at just the right time. I don’t use these religiously, but they provide an easy shorthand to building a well-rounded squad at the start or finding an appropriate transfer target when your initial plans fall apart or the injuries hit.
I’ve primarily looked at the cheaper options, although the same strategy could easily apply to players from more expensive and successful teams, especially if there are some anomalies once the price list is released. I’m not particularly looking at home fixtures, but rather the opposition. Once you aim to avoid all Man City, Man United, Chelsea and Arsenal fixtures, and Liverpool and Tottenham away, the options are fairly limited. Which of these are best will depend on prices and subsequently defensive resilience, but I like to plan ahead so I have the potential pairings to hand when I’m weighing up options.
For many of these I have presented each pairs’ best fixtures for all 38 Gameweeks, while for those that offer better rotation posibilities during the first half of the season I have just presented their initial string of good fixtures. As usual home fixtures are capped up while lower case is for away.
Bournemouth/Norwich:
AVL sun STO LEI BOU SUN whm WAT new WBA sot NEW swa EVE wat EVE wba CPL AVL lei WHM NOR sun cpl avl WHM wat SOT new SWA wba NEW avl SUN WAT eve WBA eve
Villa/Southampton:
bou EVE wat NOR wba WBA SWA STO LEI SWA BOU sun STO WAT AVL cpl new WHM nor nor WAT LEI wba whm NOR swa sto bou SUN TOT swa lei BOU eve avl wat NEW CPL
Villa/West Ham:
bou LEI BOU SUN NEW WBA NOR sun cpl SWA wat EVE eve WAT sot STO new WHM nor sun bou LEI wba AVL NOR nor SUN
Everton/Sunderland:
WAT NOR SWA avl TOT bou wba WHM wba NEW SUN SOT AVL bou CPL WAT LEI
Everton/Spurs:
WAT STO lei EVE sun CPL wba swa LIV bou AVL whm AVL bou wba NEW LEI NOR wat
Leicester/Stoke:
SUN whm nor bou AVL LEI BOU nor swa WAT wba WAT new sun swa whm CPL MUN eve BOU NOR avl
Leicester/West Ham:
SUN LEI BOU bou AVL sto NOR nor cpl CPL wat WAT new WBA swa STO swa avl SOT BOU bou avl STO AVL
Norwich/Stoke:
CPL sun nor WBA BOU LEI BOU LEI new WAT new SWA sot sun wat whm CPL tot AVL wba NOR bou lei TOT avl bou AVL NEW swa SOT wat NEW cpl SUN WAT SUN cpl WHM
Southampton/WBA:
new wat wat NOR wba avl EVE cpl LEI nor BOU sun STO whm AVL cpl BOU swa NEW nor WAT WBA AVL
Sunderland/WBA:
lei NOR SWA avl SOT bou EVE WHM SUN nor LEI SOT cpl STO TOT WAT BOU swa NEW AVL swa
Stoke/Swansea:
LIV NEW nor WBA wat LEI BOU avl STO WAT new nor BOU sun LEI whm WHM WBA cpl wba WAT lei wba CPL bou AVL NEW NOR bou wat
Sunderland/Swansea:
lei NOR sun avl wat bou sot WHM wba NEW eve nor BOU STO LEI WAT WHM WBA cpl AVL SUN WAT BOU wba CPL SOT whm CPL NOR bou AVL WBA LEI nor lei sto whm wat
Swansea/Watford:
eve NEW sun MUN SWA new CPL bou STO avl WHM nor BOU avl NOR sun WHM WBA cpl
Thanks to – Jaffalicious who posted a few himself that I have included and Lionel’s Messy Boxers who pointed out Sunderland/WBA as a good rotation pairing.
8 years, 9 months ago
Great research. Particularly keen on some of those.