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
Anyone care to comment on this one please
Hi Hammers, I’m not convinced on Everton at the back after that initial fixture, other than that can’t fault it really maybe other than to say check team news on Wisdom.
Cheers init, yeah checking on the 4.0 def situation might swap him to Hutton if he caries on playing.
What do you think about downing jags to a 5.0 like caulker then upping el Ahmadi to S Davies or colbeck?
Do exactly what Horse said!
Hi Hammers.
I have many of the same players myself.
I keep asking myself who is best out of Fab and Sanchez or Hazard and Ramsey.
At present I prefer Ramsey but am watching the Arsenal line up closely.
I like Hazard more too but am worried about his game time in preseason
Likewise I am watching Davies’ game time as well. Is he nailed on?
Wisdom is getting a lot of game time in prseason but will he be nailed on when the season starts?
Don’t like El A.
Better to find 0.5m to upgrade him to Davis
Hope this helps
Horse I’m having the exact same debate over those 4 and the best combo. Hazard on pens may swing that one but the Arsenal one I’m just not sure on! Will have to watch the CS tomorrow and see how I feel after that I guess.
Yep. Hazard on pens swings it at the moment for me too.
Ramsey is rested from no WC but when will Sanchez start playing up top?
What are thoughts on Dzeko and Giroud Init?
I guess the CS will make things clearer.
Yeah I’d wait for that but as now Jovetic would be ahead of either for me.
On Sanchez, even if he doesn’t he’ll be 1 of the 3 in behind so perhaps just as attractive really with the hidden runs.
Just moved haz in for fabregas myself. Haz up front, fab in the middle swung it for me
Cheers horse,
Picking the best ars and chelsea mids is tough coz you know you can get hammered if you get it wrong. I’m a bit blinkered by the fabs of old so can’t not pick him and I think Sanchez could be a points machine do I’m sticking with those 2 I think.
Not sure about s Davies either. Played a bit pre season and find well last year but dont know if he is nailed or not. Also looking at colbeck for 5.0. I can always down jags to a 4.5 and up el Ahmadi to a 5.5 if I needed to
What do people think?
Thanks in advance…
Krul De Gea
Azpilicueta Cameron Vlaar Shaw Moore
Hazard Ramsey Sigurdsson Huddlestone Davis
Giroud Adebayor Rooney
Hi EBC, some nice differentials there. Couple of questions – how much is Huddlestone? Is Azpi likely to retain his place?
Azpilicueta isn’t guaranteed to start now that Filipe Luis is there.
Judging from the latest lineup in preseason, I think Bardsley is now first choice ahead of Cameron.
Huddlestone doesn’t get many goals so I would look to replace him.
I think the exact same could be said about Luis though, it looks a tough call between the two of them for that starting spot, could we not find an extra .5 to put into Luis and turn him into a John Terry EBC? Shaw -> Evans could do it, I know Shaw might be playing possibly as a wing back now but he’s never scored a senior goal in his career so far and won’t be anywhere near set plays for united so maybe downgrading him isn’t too bad.
Thanks. That was my first look, haven’t really been following transfers/preseason etc.
Few changes:
De Gea Krul
Azpilicueta Jones Colocini Vlaar Moore
Hazard Ramsey Sigurdsson Huddlestone Davis
Costa Adebayor Rooney
Any better?
What’s the thoughts on Chelsea’s strikers and goalkeepers? I really don’t like rotated players so I’m doubting Costa and Azpil.
Cheers init, yeah checking on the 4.0 def situation might swap him to Hutton if he caries on playing.
What do you think about downing jags to a 5.0 like caulker then upping el Ahmadi to S Davies or colbeck?
Oops fail!
De Gea – Gilks – Caulker
Or
Foster – Green – Jones
Pretty happy.
Good for you then!
Albrighton’s injured now btw 😉
Hypothetical question but if City rips Arsenal apart and Yaya scores and assists or whatever and maybe Jovetic does similar are we all ripping our teams up and starting again?!
Of course!
Init
The only thing concerning me right now is Mata v Silva. I have Rooney, Shaw but no City. Would like to cover City but attracted to Mata’s playing position and opening fixtures.
I can’t believe yaya isn’t in everyone’s team??? Was the first name on my sheet. Why the boycott on him?