With strong returns from the likes of Burnley stopper Tom Heaton and Aston Villa’s Brad Guzan, the first half of the season has been a fine advert for opting for cheap, rotating goalkeepers in the Fantasy Premier League game. The January wildcard presents a golden opportunity for those looking to adopt or fine tune that strategy to get the most out of these budget friendly sources of points.
The Case for Budget Rotation
First half of the season proved cheap goalkeepers have various advantages:
- They are dirt cheap, that leaves you with money for investments in the other lines of your team
- Cheap goalies get plenty of save points due to the not-so-bright defence in front of them
- Cheap goalies also attract bonus points in goalless draws or low scoring games due to their saves
- Their price allows you to have a back-up, as you can easily afford two 4.5m keepers.
- Looking at the total score for the goalies in FPL, you can easily spot that Heaton offers far more value for money than his premium counterparts such as Joe Hart.
However, we haven’t mentioned the most viable advantage of cheap goalies of course – rotation. You can easily afford two 4.5 keepers that rotate well over the season and have an on paper easy fixture each Gameweek. Those who opted for Newcastle’s Tim Krul and either Brad Guzan or West Brom’s Ben Foster will already know this strategy works.
Viable rotation pairs
With that in mind let us have a look at some of the best rotation pairs for the second half of the season (Gameweeks 21 to 38)
Sunderland & Aston Villa
lei, LIV, BUR, swa, QPR, WBA, new, WBA, AVL, SWA, NEW, CPL, QPR, sto, SOT, WHM, LEI, BUR
Sunderland’s defence is hitting form at the moment with five clean sheets in the last eight games. Villa has managed to keep just six clean sheets this season, but this could be down to their inspirational centre back Ron Vlaar missing nine of these games through injury. With Vlaar now back, this combo could become fruitful. The only weak spot looks Villa’s GW22 home encounter against Liverpool, but if you’re looking for a late wildcard, this shouldn’t affect you.
Burnley & Sunderland
QPR, CPL, BUR, WBA, QPR, WBA, SWA, hul, AVL, whm, NEW, CPL, eve, LEI, SOT, hul, LEI, avl
With 5 clean sheets, 62 saves, one penalty save and four bonus points, Heaton sits top on the point scoring list for the cheap keepers. Having Heaton for the second half of the season looks tasty with Pantilimon emerging as perfect rotation partner. First 7 home games look hard to resist.
Newcastle & Sunderland
LIV, SOT, BUR, STO, QPR, WBA, AVL, hul, AVL, whm, NEW, CPL, TOT, SWA, lei, WBA, LEI, WHM
If you fancy home/away rotations more than fixture-driven options then the North East of England should be your destination. The Newcastle and Sunderland rotation includes just three away games and they are against Hull, Leicester and West Ham. However, there are still a lot of uncertainties around Newcastle keepers. Robert Elliot is expected to be back on 17th and Krul on the 26th of January. Those who’ll be looking for early wildcard may come short on time to bring in Krul for SOT on 17th of January.
Newcastle & West Brom
HUL, SOT, hul, STO, SWA, sun, AVL, avl, STO, ARS, QPR, LEI, cpl, SWA, lei, WBA, qpr, WHM
We were kind of expecting more saves from Ben Foster at the start of the season, but he ended up with only 51. However, West Brom are awaiting a new manager now, that may tighten things at the back. Fixtures look good on paper, but you have most away games from all the provided options here.
Hull & Leicester
wba, STO, NEW, CPL, AVL, QPR, sto, SUN, HUL, tot, WHM, wba, SWA, cpl, NEW, BUR, sun, QPR
We tend to consider Hull and Leicester defense to be one of the worst in PL this season. It’s pity that they rotate so well over the second half of the season. With Allen McGregor now down to 4.8 and the currently injured Kasper Schmeichel back soon for 4.4, the Hull & Leicester combination may attract managers looking for a differential.
Verdict
There are viable rotation pairs over the second half of the season. It’s up to us to decide which pair would bring most points home and which defense we trust more or less. If you don’t fancy any of the proposed pairs and you’re a member – start playing around with the ticker here and share your ideas with the community. Good luck to all with their January wildcard headaches.
