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
I think I’m happy and now just waiting to see what happens in the weekend’s games, but: if I were to replace Ramsey with Sterling, saving 0.5m, where would you reinvest it? Getting Debuchy in? Upgrading Bojan (not sure I fancy any 6m strikers though). Also doing Siggy > Barton and getting Terry in with the 1.5m? Thanks all. And top marks to Calvin- the tool is fantastic mate!
Nice squad Pippin. For a squad with no big hitters at the back it’s actually quite good. Beast front 7! I’d play Bojan ahead of Siggy for gwk 1 though.
haha, NIN, you seem surprised! I made the decision a couple of weeks back to avoid the big hitters- I don’t want a Chelsea player who doesn’t start, likewise City, Liverpool are no good at the back, I have De Gea, and I’m only really interested in Debuchy for Arsenal. That said, if Cech leaves Chelsea, I’d probably get Courtois in, and Evans into defence.
Bojan for Siggy at first, yes. I like the rotation because it gives me options- not so much because I’m worried the one on the bench will score higher each week!
What are your thoughts on Arsenal attack? Essential? I’m tempted to get Sterling for Rambo (+Nasri in for Lamela?) This may just be tinkering for the sake of it now though
Pippin – I flirted with the idea of going without Ramsey but the fear of him going off on one is too much for me! Ha. I managed to get him early last season but don’t want to run the risk this time round. You could go with N.Taylor instead of Duff with your extra 0.5m giving a nice rotation with Pieters.
NIN- that’s a great call- I don’t like Duff to be honest, and would rather avoid a 4.0m defender if possible. I’ll see how Ramsey plays this weekend / how Arsenal look generally. I’m hoping to build TV quickly this season, so will certainly consider 4pt hits in the first couple of weeks if certain players go off with a bomb. Fabregas > Ramsey is easy as is Bojan+Lamela > Ramsey+Zamora (though that’d be less ideal).
Pick it apart!
Green (Speroni)
Baines Shaw Pieters Dawson (Taylor)
Silva Eriksen Ramsey (Siggy & Albrighton)
Costa (VC) Rooney (C) Bojan
Thanks Lads!
Hammer – I’m sure you’re aware of the dangers of going with Baines and Albrighton from the start so the only other thing i see as a bit iffy is Green. QPR have recalled Cesar from his loan at Toronto FC but he hasn’t been added to FPL yet. Might be best to keep an eye on that to be sure that Green is still no1.
Using Baines to be an extra MF even with difficult start! Cant find a better 4.5 MF than Albrighton and the Cesar situation is certainly worth keeping an eye on. May switch to Foster, Krul or Mano/Panty.
Cheers NIN, hope you have as good a year as the last one!
Hammer – Yeah defo keep an eye on the Green/Cesar situation. I have no idea who’ll get the nod there but i find it strange that FPL haven’t added Cesar yet. Maybe they know something that we don’t? Haha. Hmmm, Baines is still a bit too high risk for me but if he does kick off, it’s a major shot in the arm for all who have him. I have my eye on one of he or Coleman for later rounds, around gwk 7 or 8 i think. Barkley/Lukaku also.
After lots of changes I’ve finally settled on a squad…FPL may not allow it but it’s what I’m going with.
Hey guys how does this team look?
Sorry guys wrong team
This is the team guys not the one above
De gea (myhill)
Shaw sagna Cameron (chambers and baker)
Hazard Yaya toure sterling sigurdsson (El Ahmadi)
Diego Costa Wayne Rooney
No money left in the bank if I make this my team, but are there any changes I could make?
am4r77 – Cameron and Baker are likely to have limited game time as far as i know. Not sure how long Chambers will be first 11 as most on here reckon he’ll just get a couple of games while Mertesacker is regaining his sharpness after the World Cup. El Ahmadi doesn’t promise much. I presume you have Zamora as a back up 3rd forward? If so then i’d be worried about the strength of the squad in general. First 11 is fine most of the time but when you need to use your squad, you could be in a pickle.
Woah! I nearly forgot about Sagna’s move to City, erratic game time is to be expected there also as he’ll be fighting for minutes with Zabaleta.
Nice team. Keep 0.5 in the bank so you can upgrade Sturridge to Aguero once he’s fit.
Thanks for the tip…I’ll keep that in mind…maybe I’ll downgrade courtois to fund it!
ChelseaFTW – If only things were that simple, eh? hhahaha.
Right?! I only need like another 25m in the budget…is that so much to ask?!
ChelseaFTW – I don’t think it’s too much to ask but unfortunately, FPL might. Such spoil sports.
Tekno – Allo allo!! Any thoughts on (c) choice for MLS this week? Deadline is tonight. Keano is my front runner but i might have a cheeky punt on one of Zusi, Neagle or Le Toux.
NIN
Of those options I prefer Keane, Le Toux, Zusi, and Neagle in that order. I myself will be going with Donovan.
Tekno – Good shout. LD has hurt my feelings recently. Had him for a few weeks and got nothing, sold him and he goes and scores 26 points in the next two games!! Haha. I heard he’s retiring at the end of the season… seems a bit premature as he’s only 32. Maybe that omission from the WC squad really knocked it out of him.
I agree that Keane should get the (c). I’m really tempted to go for a differential though. Been doing that recently hoping to break the top 500. Nailed that so wondering if i should keep it going or just go with Keane for the rest of the season (pretty much). DGW’s everywhere for LA.
Hi guys,
Could really use some feedback of provisional squad below:
Mannone (Krul)
Evans Caulker Cameron (Mariappa, Taylor)
Hazard Ramsay Mata Siggy (Albrighton)
Rooney Jelavic Costa
Cheers
Also have 1.5 in the bank still…
Solid squad mate, though Cameron is doubtful to play, as is Taylor (if it’s Newcastle Taylor).
Cheers mate.
It’s Neil Taylor from Swansea. Will be monitoring both of them closely until next weekend.
Not sure whether I should be keeping that 1.5mil in the bank or potentially upgrading either Jelavic or Albrighton? With regards to strikers doesn’t look like there’s much better up to 7.5 (Jelavic being at 6) apart from possibly the unknown entity of Pelle’ at Southampton??
Well I don’t fancy Jelly, but that’s just personal and he is nevertheless a valid point, hence I didn’t bring it up. Tbh, like you said, there aren’t great cheap options in the forward positions – you have Pelle, Ings and Austin as well as Jelly, but none of them have been tested in the Prem and the latter two also play for newly-promoted sides, which I don’t fancy.
I would prefer Pelle to the other three mentioned, but overall I think Bojan offers the best option; cheaper than the lot of them (allowing better fortification elsewhere in the squad), and I would say has more potential to do really well this year (potential being the operative word). Granted, he has not yet lived up to that hype of a few years ago, but it’s there in his locker somewhere, and I’d be kicking myself if he finds it and I never took a chance on him at that cheap price. His opening few fixtures are a dream too, so I’ll be giving him a few games to see how he does.
If you don’t go for Pelle then I would firstly look at upgrading the defence, getting another def in from a stronger side, and if there’s any leftover then Albrighton to a 5.0 wouldn’t be a bad place to spend it.
studiv – I’d use that 1.5m to upgrade Cameron to Pieters, Albrighton to a 5m and Mariappa to a 5m nailed on CP defender.
Say.. Ward
Indeed, Demsie, Ward would do the trick! There’s actually a decent chance Mariappa gets game time though as they haven’t got another LB that i’m aware of.
Right, enough RMT’s for now. Time to have some dinner and go pick up some beers! Catch you’s later folks. Happy tinkering.
Well, unless CP don’t sign another left back. In that case, Mariappa would be nailed i think. You could also get Shaw in place of Evans…
Just a quick one as I have to go out to pick up fish and chops for the family…
Would you rather have yaya and Rambo.. Or silva and Sanchez ?
I was on silva and Sanchez but now I’m not so sure….
Yaya and Rambo
+1 Yaya & Ramsey !
Silva and Sanchez
I sense an opportunity to be the tie-breaker..
So go with Silva and Ramsey. 😉
I’ll make it a three-way tie and vote Silva and Ramsey!
Wow.. Silva and Ramsey ?? I never even thought of that combo.. Would save me some cash too.
Ha ha that’s a great idea