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
How is the tinkering going??
Here is my latest team, think it’s pretty much set in stone. What do you think??
Mitro…
Choose either Ramsey or Sanchez….your teams too unbalanced with both..
Use cash to upgrade that defence….which is kinda weak..!
Lovely front 7, decent keepers (though I’d go with Krul over Green), and a questionable defence/bench. If you are set on an early WC then I guess your bench isn’t too important, but you won’t get very far with those back-ups. Sanchez –> Silva or Ramsey/Fabregas –> de Jong/Eriksen/Tadic would allow you to shore up the defence a bit better or upgrade Zamora while not sacrificing too much in mid.
Going with two strikers and a fleet of midfielders for a change. Happy with defence, although a bit uneasy about two 4.0s on the bench. Any opinions welcome!
Alabama,
I really like it mate, could start off very well. Your two cheap defenders are a concern but best thing is to look out this week to see if they start and if not if you can identify two that will! We’re all in the same boat in here hunting the cheapies so hang about during the week, there will no doubt be lots of discussion on it!!
Solid effort there AlabamaArkansas. So are you American? We do need a few more on the site.
No… Irish. “Alabama Arkansas” is the opening line from the Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros song, Home!
Looking again at my use of the 5.5 striker. Bojan instead of Fletcher? Any other suggestions?
Ahhh, tI see. I think is safe to say that there is plenty of Bojan love around here. Plus he rotates with Siggy when needed if you choose that route. So I would say yes to Bojan.
Hi guys, im a first time player would love some feedback on the team-cheers
Goody, it’s pretty good mate. There’s a few recommendations I would say:
Howard, apart from Gw1 hasn’t got the best early fixtures – I would maybe swap him for De Gea
Then you can trade out Shaw and Lovren. Shaw because you already have de Gea and Lovren cos he plays for Liverpool. Maybe get Cahill and Ward?
Obj an is a great pick as 3rd striker – what makes him even more appealing is up if you chuck Siggy in your midfield, they rotate brilliantly. Maybe get rid of Barkley to do that? In fact, thinking about it, do that after GW1 as Barkley plays Leicester.
Keep an eye on Bruce – doubtful he plays every week and you need starters.
Best of luck and great to see you. Hopefully see a lot of you during the season!
Sorry this was for Goldy, not Goody!
Haha cheers mate much appreciated! Looking to give it a good go this year & have found this site invaluable!
Thanks – it’s always good fun mate, happy to have you onboard! Things will liven up more this week as our weekly articles start up again, plus some fun stuff from Potty, our resident loon!
Think am done with changing my team youd love any feedback.
Has to be a big question mark over Lukaku Mitch, he’s not had any game time at all preseason so I think he’ll struggle to make the Everton team in GW 1, (Everton do have a preseason game today though so watch out for that), if needs be I’d downgrade Lukaku to a 6m priced forward and put more money into your defenders and bench players as I’m concerned with game time for Cameron, Myhill (I doubt you’d rotate De Gea though), Wisdom and possibly Davies (I haven’t really researched Tottenham’s back line in preseason).
Albrighton and Duff may play but I wouldn’t be expecting any great point returns from either.
Mitcho,
Your biggest problem here is people not playing with Cameron and Lukaku the biggest dangers. Bardsley likely to take Cameron’s spot and Lukaku is reportedly in danger of not playing next week. Frankly, if Luk doesn’t play in GW1 you may as well forget him for a few weeks as their fixtures are awful and there are better options. Maybe Jovetic? Or Bojan as a cheapie to link up with Siggy as your 5th midfielder?
this is what i have come down to for gw1.
will take out chambers for coloccini once mert comes back.
should i get in wisdom too and play 5 at the back for the first week? he might just end up getting a cs against sunderland plus he plays at home. if yes, then at who’s cost?
That’s a great first team. And a negative on playing Wisdom too! Already you have 6.0 on the bench, don’t put another forward there too. If someone is to play a 5-3-2 then they should be 5 top defenders; at the moment we don’t even know if Wisdom will play.
Best midfielder for a maximum of 6.5 bearing in mind I already have Sigurdsson
Honestly Whites I don’t fancy any of them. At a push I’d say Johnson, but he doesn’t have great fixtures. Assuming it’s not for your 5th mid but for a starter, I’d recommend freeing up a bit of cash from elsewhere in your squad and getting de Jong, Tadic or even Eriksen/Lamela if possible (if you don’t have them already).
My team is
De Gea – Gilks
Luis – Mariappa – Ferdinand – Van Aanholt – Coloccini
Sanchez – Mata – Erikson – Sigurdsson – 6.5
Rooney – Costa – Bojan
Ah easy then, you’d be benching far too much in my opinion so get a cheap 5th, preferably a 5.0, and use the 1.5 extra to upgrade defence, e.g. Ferdy –> Caulker and a 4.5 –> Debuchy.
Who would you get?
I’ve gone for Barton, but Davis and Rodwell are decent options too I think.