Fixture difficulty (FDR)
The fixture difficulty rating, or FDR, is FPL's official rating of how hard an upcoming fixture is for a team, on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 is the easiest and 5 the hardest. It is based on the strength of the opposition and whether the match is at home or away, and it is updated through the season.
Reading the scale
The ratings are colour coded in the fixtures view, so a run of easy matches is visible at a glance. Each fixture carries a rating for each of the two teams rather than one shared number: the same match can be a 2 for one side and a 4 for the other.
Home and away matter, so the two meetings between the same pair of teams are usually rated differently. The ratings are not fixed for the season either; they are revised as teams improve or fall away, which is why a fixture you planned around in August can look different by November.
Planning with it
Most managers read FDR as a run rather than a single match, looking four to six gameweeks ahead to decide when to buy into a defence, when to sell out of one, and where a Wildcard or a chip does most work. A team with four straight fixtures rated 2 is worth two or three of your places for that stretch.
It is a planning aid, not a projection. A rating of 2 says the opposition is weak, not that your player will return, and a rating of 4 has never stopped a good striker scoring. Treat it as the first filter, then look at minutes, form and set pieces.
Example
Your midfielder's next four fixtures are rated 2, 2, 3 and 2, while a rival midfielder faces 4, 5, 4 and 4. Both are good players, so you hold the first through the run and look at the second again once his hard stretch is over.
Related terms
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