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
Hi guys any thoughts on the team, should I go for a better defence by downgrading one of the 8/9 midfield?
Hi all (no one),
Is anyone having a rethink over including Arsenal players for the opening week or two in light of their tricky Champs League qualifier. Thinking at least for the first leg (19th/20th August), Wenger will want the likes of Ramsey and Sanchez super fresh. Too early in the season to be worrying about resting players or a valid concern?
Hey Chins,
I was just thinking the very same thing about Arsenal. I currently have Giroud in my squad, along with Ramsey and Debuchy, but any one of them could be sat. Maybe a good thing to drop Giroud for Dzeko or Costa for the millionth time.
Morning all you Naismith lovers (Init & friends), good news! Lukaku is a doubt for GW1 as he is short of fitness after the World Cup.
I made this point the other day Cookie and many laughed at me.
In fact they all laugh at me.
Its a bugging me now like a red spot on ones hooter.
Potty
I know Potty, what can you do mate? Maybe you could devise a poem for those foolish enough not to listen?
Anyone think Ivanovich will play all the time?.
Chelsea fans I have spoken to suggest he will suffer rotation
Fair to say they might all suffer rotation? My wild guess is that Cahill will be the less rotated. Just a random hunch founded on nothing but pure randomness. After tough CL draws even the likes of Courtois/Cech may be rotated just coz The Special one has the luxury of being able to do so.
Speaking of keepers. What about Southampton now. If they buy Forster for 10 mill. Surely he won’t be on the bench. Does that mean Boruc is history?
KFC, wouldn’t disagree with any of that and re Boruc, I wouldn’t go near him now.
Yeah The Saints ain’t really that appealing as of yet even if they have smoke screen Fonte signing a new contract!
But let’s see…Ronald Mc Koeman might do well.
Rate my team please:
howard myhill
sagna chambers cameron davies (tot) dummet
mata hazard sterling barry albrighton
dzeko rooney sturridge
hey Punk,
Howard has a decent GW1 then tough fixtures for 6 weeks, Barry likewise and he doesn’t contribute much in fantasy terms anyway. Cameron’s place is in doubt due to the arrival of Bardsley, who has played preseason and settled in well.
+1 and would add the Sagna rotation risk.
yep good point, missed that
thanks KFKC
thanks @Cookie. your suggestions will probably be the last change i’ll make till Saturday now 😉 Have a great one and see you out there. I’ll be following your progress.
Go well Punk
Non playing 2nd keeper, Chambers, when Mert back ? Will Cameron, Dummet + Albrighton start ? Barry tough opening set of fixtures + not a high point acheiver fantady wise, Dzeko rotation risk.
much appreciated elfee
i don’t know if these are rumors but my brother’s a huge arsenal fan, and word was chambers might be handed a midfield role by the big W – a defensive one at that. but now that the word is arteta may be captain after Vermaleen, i’m not too sure. i watched the emirates games and chambers looked very good going forward. is the 3-5-2 the new favored formation among epl managers e.g. van gaal and now the big W???
Manchester City have two number one keepers – Manuel Pellegrini