Cramming your squad full of premium players will be harder than ever ahead of the 2023/24 season, with many of our most reliable and consistent assets enduring a price hike. In order to provide funding for players such as Erling Haaland (£14.0m), Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.0m), and Mohamed Salah (£12.5m), we will have to be careful elsewhere.

A good option for making the most of our budget is to maximise the output of our budget players. This can be done by getting two assets from the same position and best-utilising their respective fixtures. Ensure Player A is on the pitch when he has a good fixture, while Player B (who has a difficult fixture) remains on the bench. And vice versa.

Sounds complicated? Fear not! This is made much easier by using the Fix Rotation Planner. We outline a number of rotation options in this blog.

Goalkeepers (GK)

According to the Algorithm, the best defensive rotation pairing for the first 6 Gameweeks comes from Brighton and Chelsea.

A goalkeeper double-up of Kepa Arrizabalaga (£5.0m) and Jason Steele (£4.5m) – assuming both remain first choice – would ensure the selected player avoids any teams who finished in the top half of the table, and will face newly promoted Luton, and Bournemouth, twice; toothless Wolves once; and Nottingham Forest at home.

Defenders (DEF)

If, like many, you are opting for a 3-5-2 formation with the intention of having budget defenders occupying the bench slots, you can rotate between three budget options, to ensure the one who makes the starting XI always has a good fixture.

Everton, Brentford and Fulham rotate nicely as a trio to ensure difficult opposition is avoided. Once again, in this configuration newly promoted teams are faced three times (in the first 8 Gameweeks) and difficult fixtures against Arsenal, Manchester City and Arsenal can be avoided all together.

For a budget rotation pairing, Aston Villa and Newcastle rotate well, despite both teams enduring a difficult start to the season. Those wishing to invest in their assets, while circumventing their difficult start, would do well to consider the following rotation pairing:

Midfielders (MID)

Rotating assets doesn’t always have to be about budget players. Manchester United and Tottenham rotate nicely from an attacking perspective.

Owners of, for example, Mason Mount (£7.0m) and James Maddison (£7.5m) could see these two assets face newly promoted sides in 50% of their fixtures, with stronger opponents such as Manchester United, Brighton and Arsenal avoided.

Forwards (FWD)

Many managers are gearing their squads around a formation which involves just two starting attackers (with one of them being a certain Norwegian, of course).

Another option here is to have two reasonably priced forwards who can work nicely as a pair, switching places off the bench to accommodate the better fixtures. Yoane Wissa (£6.0m) and Taiwo Awoniyi (£6.5m) combine well, ensuring that neither forward faces an away team, with all six fixtures at home.

By Matt Whelan