Fixture Tracker – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15
We’ve all seen a few different ways of viewing upcoming fixtures, and the one that has become increasingly popular over the last couple of years is the colour-coded one. With this, you can instantly see each team’s approaching fixtures with an accompanying colour that corresponds to the difficulty of each match. This is very useful for both identifying teams that are potentially about to have a great run due to a kind set of fixtures, and also identifying weaker teams that can rotate well, i.e. when one team has a bad fixture the other will have a decent one, so you swap between the two players. For more info on rotation, check out Mito’s somewhat exceptional article on it 😉 Rotation Analysis Home and Away and Favourable fixtures
Many of these colour-coded tickers only show a few weeks in advance, which is very helpful for short-term plans, but not if you’re planning transfers for the long-term. It is understandable that these tickers are short-term, as teams’ form tends to fluctuate as the season progresses, so if you made a season-long ticker now, it may well not be a good reflection of how difficult a match is come Christmas or Easter. Who knows, maybe Villa will get off to a blinder and win 10 out of 15 (hahaha!), in which case a game against them would no longer be considered easy. Also, sometimes we may even disagree with the colour a certain match has been assigned by the fantasy football gurus that make the tickers! The ticker I have made is designed with both of these points in mind, and can be updated throughout the season as and when you see fit.
Customisable Tracker
Some of you may already have seen my earlier prototype after I posted it on the boards last week (much to init’s dismay :p ) – I have since added all 38 GWs to the tracker, modified the colours used and added a new custom search for individual teams, so even if you had the original please do use this updated version instead.
And it works like this: I have split up all 20 teams into four groups of similar ability, and then given every possible combination (of which there are 32) a difficulty rating of between A and E (5 difficulties as opposed to 3 for greater accuracy). Both of these factors are the variables that you can change, and doing so will automatically update the colours in your fixtures tab. Simply click on the ‘Variables’ tab as shown in fig.1, change any of the values in the cyan-coloured columns shown in fig. 2,
and you will be able to view your very own customised 38 GW fixture tracker as shown in the main image above. This is all explained in more detail in the ‘How It Works’ tab. Finally, I have made a ‘Compare Fixtures’ tab as well – this allows you to select only the teams you wish in order to see just how well they compare and/or rotate, without having the distraction of all 20 teams’ colours present. If you wish to use this tool then select the ‘Compare Fixtures’ tab and then click on the ‘Add Team’ drop-down menu as shown in fig. 3 and choose the team you want. You can do this with as many or as few teams as you wish. Though it seems rather simple, I found this last feature very tricky and would not have been able to make it work as well as it does without the help of Dreamers, so a huge thanks to him!
I have made the link read-only, so as to preserve the template in its original format for everyone in case the formulas stop working. Just save your own version of the file, and you will be able to customise it entirely as you see fit. Please bear in mind that this was made with Google Sheets and is intended to be used in that format so it can be saved in favourites for easy access; if you download it with Excel then the margins and borders will probably be off so will need adjusting. I am always open to suggestions for ways to improve it, so feel free to send me a message or post a comment below to that effect if you have any ideas. And finally, I have double- and triple-checked the fixtures, but there are a lot of them and after a point they all tend to blur together, so if you spot any mistakes please let me know as soon as possible!
Click the link below for the file. Hope it helps a few of you, happy customising.
Fixture Tracker – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15
So with Forster signing for Southampton I guess that makes Boruc No2?
The lad must be gutted.
Potty
Potty – Boruc wasnt that reliable last season?
Hi guys,
This is the team I am thinking about starting off with. 100m spent. Does anyone have any advice/ would you make any changes?
Thanks
Hi Dan, you need to check in the Mannone situation. Same with Wisom and Cameron. None of those are nailed on starters yet. I’d definitely reconsider a double Liverpool midfield. How much is Henderson, I’ve never even looked?
I had Puncheon in Henderson’s place but as they were both 6m I went with Henderson. Would it be better to do Hazard and a cheapie or Sterling and Punch/Hend? I think Wisdom should start due to the lack of players in that position at WBA and last year Cameron had quite a bit of gametime. I will mainly be playing with 3 DEF though, is Azpi nailed on?
Dan, I overlooked Axpi but no he’s not now you’ve said it! Cameron’s at risk now they’ve signed Bardsley. If you fancy Sterling then stick with that but defo find another 6.0 mid instead of Hendo. Personally I’d take Snodgrass but Puncheon or Shelvey are options.
At 6.0 the popular choice seems to be Siggy, but I do like Snodgrass as an option.
Yeah I’d go Siggy! Had it in my head he was 7.0 for some reason! Go Siggy Dan, he’s been on fire in pre-season.
It’s worth noting that Schürrle and Drogba have taken direct fks with Fabregas on the pitch.
Mmmmh crap. Think they won’t have a regular taker this year or what? And btw just saw your post about Costa goal….and just saw it…and just wow.
The whole debate between popular players vs. differentials always makes a pre-season team selection hard.
Let others worry about differentials and stating themselves apart. Hopefully people will choose wrong and your steady choices will bring home the bacon.
Damn!! mutch is 5.5, 0.5 too much imo
thoughts and opinions needed, still doesnt feel right yet.
Very weak midfield.. Would it be Panti or Mannone still?
What formation would it be? 4-3-3? 3-4-3? I don’t see a 4th starting defender or midfielder worth FPL points.
Switch Henderson to Snodgrass 😉 In this instance…
yeah haha, just did the opposite move, will change that back. but m&b might have convinced me to go to bojan. done a few changes to beef up midfield a bit:
pant/krul
vermaelen(man u bound)/ luis/clyne/4.0/4.5
haz/sanchez/silva/siggy/albrighton
rooney/costa/bojan.
any better? thanks for all feedback
Vermaelen is off to Barcelona mate. They had a £15m offer accepted today so i’d expect him to sign officially by Monday morning. Defo looks better though.
oh, damn that makes thing so much more complicated!! paper today said “verm chooses LVG” -_-
Verm is deffo off to Barca.
hazardeden10 – Can we be sure that Jovetic will be a first 11 player most weeks? He has been good in preseason but i’m unsure he’ll be able to nail a spot as Dzeko is their only real out and out striker. Henderson could be a decent shout once their fixtures ease up a little but can he be relied upon? Cameron isn’t a starter and i’m not sure about Yoshida either, although, i haven’t been keeping up with Southampton’s preseason. I’d consider dropping Hendo for a 5m/5.5m mid and then upgrade Albrighton a touch. Then i would look to Jovetic and maybe bring in a 6.5m/or less, striker and use those funds to fill out in defence.
thanks nin, points taken on board, and re thought a new team above, any better?