2019/20 Premier League – FPL Rotations

Over the season there are a number of teams that rotate when they play at home or away. There are a number of reasons for this such as the geographical location of the teams, but that said here are all the teams rotate throughout the whole season.

When rotating players the most obvious ways of doing it is usually rotating a 3rd striker and a 5th midfielder and/or playing 1 defender from your 3rd, 4th and 5th defender. Another strategy is just rotating your 3rd and 4th defender as you decide to have a £4.0m defender that doesn’t play. Rotations are done so you can avoid fielding players that have difficult fixtures and bench them for another player who has an easier game.

Rotating players do have some downsides. Firstly you’re going to be spending more of your budget on your bench players which means you won’t be maximising your starting XI’s value. Secondly you’re never going to be able to pick the right player for 38 consecutive gameweeks meaning you’re going to have points on your bench. This isn’t always a bad thing as it can benefit you when you have an injury or your player is rotated. You have to weigh up all these pros and cons.

From the below 10 Home and Away rotations I’m going to evaluate whether it will be viable to rotate with these 2 teams.

Arsenal & Tottenham

The two North London sides rotate home and away right throughout the season for obvious reasons like most local rivalries do.

Verdict – This rotation isn’t really feasible, mainly due to the price. It’s not logical to be rotating two premium defenders nor an attacker and a midfielder from a top 6 side.

The only potential area where you could utilise this is captaincy. However, it’s highly unlikely you’ll do this from the start. There may be a point in the season where you may rotate Kane and Aubameyang with your armband to capitalise on their home fixtures.

Aston Villa & Burnley

Here are two sides where you may see some budget options to help fund those heavy hitters.

Verdict – There’s definitely potential to rotate your 3rd and 4th defender. From Gameweek 1 till Gameweek 9 there’s only 1 game where one of these faces a ‘big 6’ side and during that gameweek they’re easily benched.

Villa kept a clean in 26% of their games last season while Burnley only mustered 8. With no Europa League distractions during their pre-season this should improve and they’ll be hoping to match their 12 in 2017/18 campaign.

This looks a strong start and there’s definitely a few shut outs in this run, but you have to keep in mind that one of these teams are newly promoted. If another Ashley Barnes crops up their may be some potential going forward too.

First 9 Fixtures – SOU/BOU/EVE/cry*/WHU/NOR/BUR/EVE/BHA

Chelsea – Watford

Cheslea will be looking to improve on their third place finish, albeit currently without a manager, whilst Watford will be looking for a top half finish.

Verdict – As previously mentioned rotating a player from a top 6 side isn’t ideal. The only time I could see it working out with a smaller team is with a £5.5m and a £4.5m keeping rotation. It’s quite rare that you’ll get a good combo and you’ll usually kick yourself after benching the wrong one!

Leicester & Brighton

Leicester finished in the top half last season, whilst Brighton scrapped to safety, so maybe not the strongest pairing, but nevertheless they do rotate well.

Verdict – At first glance these 2 sides look to be a great potential defensive rotation. Going on last season’s prices they wouldn’t work as a keeper pairing due to Schmeichel £5.0m. Whoever Harry Maguire’s centre back partner may provide a cheap rotation pairing that works very well till Gameweek 11. During this period they only face 2 top 6 sides and during one of those weeks you could play your other player away to Newcastle.

Looking further up the pitch I don’t see much potentially, keeping in mind it’s not easy to find a budget forward and midfielder that rotates well.

First 11 Fixtures – WOL/WHU/SOU/BOU/BUR/new/NEW/TOT/BUR/EVE/NOR

Liverpool & Everton

The Merseyside rivals unsurprisingly rotate their home fixtures each gameweek.

Verdict – Putting it simply you’ll never want to bench a Liverpool player against any team.

Manchester City & Manchester United

Similar to the Merseyside teams, the Manchester rivals also rotate their home fixtures throughout the season.

Verdict – Like before, if you own either of these teams assets you’re going to be paying a high price and definitely won’t be wanting to bench one of them each week. When it comes to captaincy there aren’t many Manchester United assets that seems to be reliable enough to put the armband on, so it’s not worth looking into this rotation either.

Newcastle & Sheffield United

Two teams who are likely to feature in the second half of the table include Newcastle who are now without a manager and Sheffield United who are newly promoted.

Verdict – These two sides look great value wise. Apart from Dubravka, all of the Magpies’ defensive assets were priced at £4.5m and Sheffield United’s won’t be any dearer.

In the medium term their opening games look good. Just the one ‘big six’ game during Gameweek 1 but you could play a Sheffield United player against Bournemouth. After these 6, the fixtures aren’t as pretty. This could be an option for those who plan to wildcard early.

First 6 Fixtures – bou*/CRY/LEI/WAT/SOU/BHA

Norwich & Crystal Palace

Similar to the previous paring, we have a newly promoted team and a team that finished in the second half of the league.

Verdict – This pair looks a great budget defensive rotation. For the start of the season I’d prefer to look at them as a keeper pairing due to them facing Chelsea and Man City in Gameweek 3 and 5. Apart from that they face 3 bottom 6 sides in their initial 8 games. Newly promoted sides also face a lot of shots, so if clean sheets are sparse, you’ll normally get a couple of save points along the way.

First 8 Fixtures – EVE/NEW/CHE/AVL/MCI/WOL/NOR/AVL

Southampton & Bournemouth

Similar to most rivals, these South Coast rivals also rotate their home fixtures, albeit with them being 30 miles apart. That said, both will be looking to improve upon their 16th and 14th finishes last season.

Verdict – Last season saw plenty of budget options in the Bournemouth attack and midfield and a few budget enablers in the Southampton midfield for the final DGW of last season. It was hard to predict when Bournemouth assets returned and Southampton attackers weren’t awfully prolific, so an attacking rotation will be difficult.

Defensively both teams are touch and go but the opening 10 gameweeks look rather promising. They face 4 ‘big six’ sides but in 3 cases you can get away with the away fixture. 3 trips to each of the promoted sides is always beneficial. 3 away games in the first 4 is the only off putting thing but this keeper pairing has potential.

First 10 Fixtures – SHU/avl/bha/lei*/EVE/BOU/WHU/CHE/NOR/LEI

West Ham & Wolves

Both West Ham and Wolves finished in the top half of the league last season and they will look to improve upon this in the 2019/20 Premier League season. That said, both rotate well:

Verdict – Last season there was plenty of value in both of these teams defences and a Patricio/Fabianski double up was popular last season. The latter provided plenty of save points at his £4.5m price tag. The only issue with these two was the fact that on a number of occasions manager’s benched their returns and this will always happen when rotating your keepers. The opening 11 games look great for those planning on holding their wildcard for the long run. 4 of these games are against the ‘big six’ but you can easily play the team with the away fixture during those weeks. This pairing has 4 games against the newly promoted sides too.

Wolves’ forwards provided plenty of value last season but this season you’d expect a price hike and at an added price I can’t see it being viable to rotate either sides assets. Likewise with West Ham attackers, no budget options stood out last season like Lanzini of a few 2 seasons ago but the transfer window is still wide open. However, like most rotations no attacking rotation stands out.

First 11 Fixtures – lei/bha/BUR/NOR/avl/cry/WAT/CRY/SHU/NEW/AVL

Written by FPL Junior (@FPL_Junior)

1 Response

  1. Ninja says:

    Great Rotation options,

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