PLFantasy

Disappointed with another pair of socks? Grandma got you another gift card for the Body Shop? Well, unwrap the below - a fully updated guide to the best goalkeeper/defender combos, starting from GW21 - when the transfer window opens. Given that the same rotation logic can be applied to defenders as 'keepers I have included teams who offer budget options anywhere in the back five (e.g. Dawson at Spurs) even if their 'keeper would be excluded from a true budget rotation strategy. Powered by Tableau For reference, using this same logic, playing Joe Hart every week is going to net you the lowest average goals per game forecast, with a number of budget sidekicks giving you a 0.85 average. In my opinion I find little data to backup paying the 2.0m premium for those slightly improved forecast numbers though and thus I'm happy to stick with a rotation strategy for the second half of the year. For reference, Arsenal just miss out on the sub-5.0m bracket, with their che...

Updated goalkeeper rotation numbers after four gameweeks. Data is based on current and prior year data, weighted towards the 2012/12 data. The below number shows the average goals per game conceded of the best fixture for each combination of players. For example, the average forecast goals conceded if you own Foster and Jaaskelainen would be 1.27:

One of the first ideas I wrote about on the blog was the idea of utilizing two budget 'keepers to deliver the same value as one elite player. As a quick reminder, the basic premise of the strategy is that: A player's opponent has a strong influence on his weekly success and thus if you select players whose fixtures 'gel' well together, you can maximise the number of games played against weaker opponents. If you select an elite keeper, you still need to spend at least 4.0m on your second keeper who will likely never see the light of day. Hence, to enjoy the right to play Joe Hart every week will cost you at least 11.0m where as playing a pair of average players in the best circumstances will set you back 10.0m or even less. It's tricky to predict how teams will perform this year using only prior year statistics, but by and large we can get a decent idea of what to expect as teams rarely change dramatically on a yearly basis. The calculation for the promoted t...