FPL 2023/24 fixtures: Best teams to pair in rotation

We continue our analysis of the newly released 2023/24 Premier League fixture list with a look at which teams rotate well from a Fantasy perspective.

We’re using our customisable Season Ticker for this article, a tool that allows you to filter clubs by rotation amongst other sortable options.

• READ MORE: FPL 2023/24: Best fixtures for the new season
• READ MORE: FPL 2023/24: Worst fixtures for the new season
• READ MORE: How to use the Season Ticker for FPL fixture planning

FPL ROTATION PAIRINGS: EXPLAINED

The idea here is to simply find a couple of low-cost Fantasy Premier League (FPL) assets whose fixtures dovetail, either to offer successive home matches or, more importantly, a prolonged spell of favourable opponents.

We’re focusing on budget defensive options, mainly because many Fantasy managers will resist benching premium assets.

In theory, this approach can help maximise the points returns from two low-cost picks, freeing up funds for the premium assets like Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland.

It should be said that the rotation strategy is shunned by some Fantasy managers, as anticipating where a clean sheet or attacking return will come from is often not just as straightforward as picking the player with a home match or better-on-paper fixture.

HOME/AWAY ROTATION PAIRINGS IN 2023/24

There are 10 pairings that alternate home fixtures perfectly next season (credit goes to Fantasy Football Scout user Portsmouth Bubblejet for the research):

Some of the above couplings are decided by geographical proximity, created by the need to spread police resourcing: Liverpool/Everton, Manchester United/Manchester City and Spurs/Arsenal being notable examples.

And a number of these combinations are largely irrelevant when it comes to rotation pairings because of the price tags associated with at least one of the respective clubs’ assets and their ability to score points on the road – Fantasy managers aren’t likely to alternate benchings for Ruben Dias and Luke Shaw simply because they have an away fixture, for example.

So for more realistic pairings, we sometimes have to box a little bit more clever.

BEST FPL ROTATION PAIRINGS

For these pairings, we’ll look no further than Gameweek 19 – the point that the first Wildcard expires.

We’ll also look at rotation pairings of various lengths, as many of us won’t be holding our Wildcard for that long.

BRENTFORD/FULHAM

We start with a pairing that takes us right through to just after the second international break, which looks like a possible first Wildcard window.

Brentford defenders are probably right in the middle of that £4.5m/£5.0m grey area when it comes to starting prices, having boasted the joint-best defence outside of the top four in 2022/23.

Ben Mee and the seemingly outgoing David Raya look primed for price rises but, should FPL be feeling generous, we may get lucky with Ethan Pinnock, Rico Henry or new goalkeeper Mark Flekken.

The Bees boast one of the best opening fixture runs, sitting high up our Season Ticker until Gameweek 9. Free from the distractions of European club competition, despite their best efforts to achieve qualification, there’ll also be few concerns on the rotation front.

They do have some trickier tests within the first quarter of the new campaign, trips to Newcastle United and Manchester United in Gameweeks 5 and 8 the obvious causes for concern.

Pairing a Brentford goalkeeper (whoever the number one may be) or defender with a counterpart from Fulham means we can bypass those tougher fixtures with plum-looking home games against newly promoted Luton Town and Sheffield United.

Even in Gameweek 1, with Brentford hosting Tottenham Hotspur, the Cottagers face an Everton side not renowned for their goalscoring exploits.

Looking further ahead, the two teams give a very decent Gameweek 13-19 fixture run of: WOL, LUT, NFO, shu, AVL, BUR, WOL.

The goalkeepers of Brentford and Fulham made more saves than any other shot-stoppers last season; that’s sometimes a reason not to rotate them, as even in the difficult fixtures they can rack up a tidy score without keeping a clean sheet.

EVERTON/LUTON TOWN

Continuing with the Gameweeks 1-9 timeframe, the fixtures of Everton and Luton dovetail fairly well.

Avoiding any team finishing higher than 10th last season, we get three games against newly promoted clubs, two home matches against a Wolverhampton Wanderers side who were dismal on the road in 2022/23, and visits of Fulham and Bournemouth.

Unlike options from Brentford, we know for almost certain that the goalkeepers/defenders of the Toffees and the Hatters are going to come in at £4.5m or less.

Their defensive assets are also looking to be more appealing than their team-mates further forward. Luton seem like they may struggle for goals but had the Championship’s second-best defence, while their wing-backs are a source of creativity. Everton, despite their flirtation with relegation, were only beaten by five other clubs for home clean sheets, meanwhile.

This pairing does look like a classic case of favourable fixtures over anything else: these sides are two of the relegation favourites, so there’ll be limited expectations of what they can achieve even in easier-on-paper matches.

Everton’s fixtures also rotate very well with those of Nottingham Forest in Gameweeks 1-9 (five meetings with newly promoted clubs) but there is no appealing fixture for either team in Gameweek 6.

NOTTINGHAM FOREST/BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION

Speaking of Forest, their home fixtures – as revealed by Portsmouth Bubblejet – alternate exactly with those of Brighton and Hove Albion in 2022/23.

Looking slightly further ahead at a Gameweeks 1-16 rotation, we get six home fixtures against the newly promoted sides, two meetings with the limited attack of Everton, and visits of West Ham United, Bournemouth and Fulham.

It’s not a perfect run: Gameweeks 4 and 7 aren’t ideal, for example.

But all in all, of the 16 fixtures on offer, it’s possible to avoid a side who finished any higher than 9th in the Premier League in 2022/23.

Whether we’ll get any Brighton assets below £5.0m is another question – Pervis Estupinan certainly won’t be but might we get lucky with Lewis Dunk, given that he averaged only 3.1 points per match last season?

WEST HAM UNITED/ASTON VILLA

The same question we posed of Brighton defenders can be asked of their Aston Villa counterparts: will we be lucky enough to get any below £5.0m? Only three teams conceded fewer goals than the Villans from Gameweek 15 onwards, the point at which Unai Emery took over.

Perhaps our best hope is that Diego Carlos is handed a £4.5m price tag after his injury-affected 2022/23 campaign and then muscles his way back into his manager’s first-choice backline in pre-season.

West Ham defenders should come in at a budget-friendly price, their tally of nine clean sheets superior to only five teams last season – three of which dropped down to the Championship.

Once again we can avoid any of last season’s top 10 by pairing these two claret-clad clubs from Gameweeks 1-14, although that does include a trip to Chelsea in Gameweek 6.

This run includes five encounters with the newly promoted teams, two home games against a shot-shy Everton, and two clashes with Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace.

Have you spotted any other good pairings that we’ve not discussed? Let us know in the comments below.

We’ll follow this piece up with an article on how last season’s pairings did, to see just how effective rotation combinations can be.

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