The migrating birds of summer swooped into Europe over
the summer months to find a continent captivated by talk of political chaos,
financial speculation and a new found love for whales. However, as June turned
to July, even they, along with the dog on the street, will have realised it was
not whales but Wales who everyone was raving about. Indeed, while the red dragon
of Wales soared towards European glory, approximately 0.007% of the Icelandic
population were emerging from the ash cloud shadow of Mount Eyjafjallajökull to
slay three lions. However, the felines transpired to be kittens and their
massacre was TV gold.
Magical as it all was, the European Championships have
passed by into the void now. Soon, tales of Joe Allen, Robbie Brady and Steve
McClaren reacting to Kolbeinn Sigþórsson will be rose tinted memories shared
with our grandchildren while the dodgy Euro’s FPL app will be shown to computer
scientists for generations to come as the quintessential pile of dung. Fear not
though, August 13th isn’t
far away and our FPL hunger shall soon be satisfied.
In preparation for the upcoming season, I’ve analysed the
fixtures to pick out a few rotations you should know about when drafting your
15 man squad. You should
also check out Chief’s article featuring other options. The idea of
this is to have a plan in place which in theory allows you to play at least one
good player in a given position each gameweek. It’s best operated for ‘keepers
and defenders, where having someone who’s likely to pull in a cleanie each
weekend is crucial. Home games and games versus weak opposition teams are
viewed favourably in these as teams have been statistically more likely to keep
clean sheets in these games.
West Brom & Stoke
City
Middlesbrough (A)
Everton (H)
Middlesbrough (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Palace (A) or West Ham (H)
West Brom (H)
Sunderland (A)
Sunderland (H)
Hull (A)
Swansea (H)
10 Gameweeks
Stag Rating: 7/10 -
Quite a lot of away games in this combo. Gameweek 2 is the weakest point in
this chain.
Burnley &
Middlesbrough
Swansea (H) or Stoke (H)
Sunderland (A)
West Brom (A)
Hull (H) or Palace (H)
Everton (A)
Watford (H)
6 effective gameweeks but has good fixtures in GW8 (WAT
H) and GW10 (BOU H) too. Another option is Burnley & West Brom.
Stag’s Rating: 6/10 –
Cheap for certain but reliance on away games leaves a lot to be desired and
it’s quite short sighted. Useful if you’re planning an early wildcard.
Chelsea & Tottenham
West Ham (H)
Palace (H) or Watford (A)
Burnley (H)
Swansea (A)
Sunderland (H)
Middlesbrough (A)
Hull (A)
West Brom (A)
Bournemouth (A)
9 Gameweeks
Stag’s Rating: 8/10 –
The fixtures are strong however the rating cannot be higher given that
defenders from these clubs will more than likely be premium priced and at least
5.0.
Palace & Chelsea
West Brom (H)
Watford (A)
Burnley (H) or Bournemouth (H)
Swansea (A) or Middlesbrough (A)
Stoke (H)
Sunderland (A)
Hull (A)
7 Gameweeks. Chelsea games make up the majority of
this rotation which justifies paying the premium price for a Conte system
defender. Palace lads cheaply replace their London neighbours when they take on
West Ham, Liverpool and Arsenal.
Stag’s Rating: 9/10 –
Cheap and accessible with consistently strong fixtures.
Sunderland & Palace
West Brom (H)
Middlesbrough (H)
Bournemouth (H)
Middlesborough (A) or Everton (H)
Stoke (H)
Palace (H)
West Brom (H)
West Ham (H) or Stoke (A)
8 Gameweeks
Stag’s Rating: 10/10 –
This combination is ideal. It is made up of defenders who should be cheap. At
worst, you should be able to have 2 players from this rotation in your team for
9.0. The fixtures themselves have a home game option that is reasonable every
week and feature no match against a Top 6 team.
