fantasy premier league return – rotation and the 5 subs rule

Here’s our fantasy premier league return article where we look at how rotation and the 5 sub rule will affect fantasy premier league until the end of the season

fantasy premier league return – rotation and the 5 subs rule

Introduction

The Premier League season was originally proposed to restart on the 12th June but the consensus now seems more like the 26th of June.  A finish in mid August is proposed which would make 9 gameweeks in 7 weeks.  That’s a tight squeeze.The postponement of the European competitions means that hindrance could be ruled out depending on how they restructure the competition.  Liverpool and Spurs are out of the Champions League and Chelsea all but.  That leaves Man City likely to progress.  In the Europa League Arsenal are out and Man Utd and Wolves have progressed and Arsenal out

The 3 months away from competitive games, the short amount of contact training and the lack of friendlies leading up to the restart combined with a condensed schedule means that players won’t be as match fit as they could be.  That could lead to increased injury and rotation.

Teams will be also be allowed to make 5 substitutions per match after the IFAB made a temporary change to the laws to cope with returning from the Covid-19 enforced break.

How will this affect the Premier League and of course our fantasy premier league teams.

We look at some of the factors that could play a part in increasing a players rotation and/or reducing their minutes on the pitch during any match by being more easily subbed.  Then we will look at the top 15PPM players in each position and add comments as to their risk.

Here’s a few of the categories:

Injury returning and injury prone players

Players coming back from injury or players with an injury history could be more prone to rotation.  We all saw recently how Danny Ings had his starts and minutes proactively managed by Hassenhuttl in order to avoid injury.

Could we see the same from some players who have returned from injury during the Covid related break. They maybe have their minutes managed during games and be rotated especially during the early fixtures.

These include Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba, Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Ashley Barnes, Tammy Abraham, Hudson-Odoi and Christian Pulisic.

There’s also the players like Danny Ings who are considered injury prone.  Other names that come to mind are Walcott, Lanzini and Deulofeu.

Replaceable players

Tammy Abraham off for Giroud has been a pretty common substitution as has Aguero off for Gabriel Jesus.  Some players have the back up or a plan B option substitution to make them more easily replaceable than others.

There are many more which I will flag in a table below

Teams with nothing to play for

In theory if you’re not playing to win the league or for a European spot or to avoid relegation then you’re playing for nothing.  Why would key players be risked in a scenario when there is nothing to play for.

Realistically Burnley, Crystal Palace, Everton, Newcastle and Southampton should have nothing to play for.  For Palace what incentive will there be to flog their biggest asset in Zaha for the rest of the season.

Looking at Rotation Risk and Replacements of top 15 players in each position

Minimum 1,000 minutes played

The top 15 PPM defenders

Top PPM midfielders

Top 15 PPM forwards

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