Dan

Choudhury on is absolutely mental. Like complete footballing terrorism. It's one thing having Ndidi there but at least he's actually 'sometimes' dont some good going forward. You have genuine attacking midfield options (which he made a point of getting) now. It's his instincts. Park the bus and then park it somehow even further against all odds. I've seen enough already from Cooper. There's some merit in what he's doing and our results haven't been a catastrophe on an individual basis but it's the collective lack of wins that is going to nail us. I'll be very surprised if he hits 40 points. He's not good enough. He was very lucky at Forest.

Infuriating. I thought we did better than expected through a lot of that game but what the fuck is the point if we're just going to set fire to points like that? Cooper's instincts are just too negative and he'll never shake it. He said after Forest and a year off that he'd sat down with analysts and whatnot about his shortcomings but this is just exactly the same bloke. I don't think you can reteach things that are natural instinct. We started with too negative a side, which, credit, actually got 2 goals in front, but when seeing it out we retreat even further. We started the game with an XI we should probably finish with and then finished the game with one that should be consigned to the nearest bin. For Coady to do that as well - absolutely ridiculous and this is an experienced centre half as well, I could forgive perhaps Okoli but how can an experienced centre half do that? I think it's a massive two dropped. Palace really are just the same old Palace after all which is a shame for them after a very promising last few months. I'll be very surprised if they finish above 11th. Cooper won't win six Premier League games as Leicester manager.

A notoriously tough week but honestly not a disaster if you look at the whole forum collectively here given it's the second highest scoring week yet. Or the second smallest loss, should I say. Four wins out of five for @Smiley Culture, playing a low risk but accumulative win strategy but nearly flawlessly so far. @RandoEFC is desperately unlucky this weekend I think. I think the value is generally with the unders in football due to peoples reluctance to back it but he was stung here by a surprise French collapse at home to Italy. He falls to a deficit of 10p which I think is the closest to zero anybody has ever been. I'm back with another loss. I've covered my shitshow. @...Dan is on the board at last - saved by a very late Romania goal giving them a 3-1 win. @CaaC (John) is still yet to land a single selection let alone a double, really not his season so far, but I feel like one week for him it's just going to come together a bit due to his generally ambitious efforts. @Stan picks a double of bet builders but is stung by the corners on both occasions (and the cards in Charlton Rotherham, which surprises me a little given the two managers) meaning he's now at the bottom of the table. Back to normal next weekend. I really dislike the September international break. It's too soon after a tournament, it's too soon into the new season. Thank god they're getting rid.

Surprise surprise - England Finland goes exactly how I expected Ireland England to.

On the board!

Yeah this is a bust. Fuck sake.

This is likely bust already. Unless England just run riot in the second half which is possible but I wouldn't be surprised if we took the handbrake off a bit. Poor bet though and pure luck if it wins from here.

Absolute fluke. If it wasn't then do it again.

State of France. That's a shitter.

First pick I'm taking Ireland v England, 2nd half to have the most goals. Usually reserve this market for tense games where both teams really need a win, but just think with the nature of how these two play each other. It's usually a dog shit game (Ireland are one of the only teams I think that are consistently duller than England) but I can see England eventually breaking them and beating them pretty soundly. 2.10 the price. I'll do tenner. Potentially going to add a second if I find anything I like.

Touchline shouts are a bit crap though to be honest. It's one of those features that should be there but they've just done it really badly. It's either "fire up" or "encourage" for what's basically a 10 minute morale boost and anything else just seems to puzzle everything. I've seen people playing it before and they just hit that as a bit of a button bash if anything. It's a really badly executed feature. I've tried international management and just can't do it. I managed Australia on FM once along with my own job and I thought at the World Cup I'm going to take this seriously enough to track the whole tournament properly and watch the 90 minutes, play it properly. Couldn't do it. Think I managed one half and went back to extended commentary. Went out in the groups. It's just one of those things that'll never be particularly enjoyable although I don't really understand why you would take the option away either.

You know as much as I'm loving winding up Forest and Everton fans online currently I do think they need to completely bin this and compensate those two for last season somehow. None of us should've ever been docked anything. God knows how we've managed this though. Highly embarrassing for the Premier League that we've managed to slip through like this. I'll be watching the officiating in our games closely

Updated table. Lots of movement with nobody retaining their place from last week - obviously @Pyfish has only just entered, and by coming straight in at 3rd despite a loss it's the good element of this game in that you can win the league without having to play throughout. Although he was ridiculously unlucky to not have a pretty good shot of doing this anyway after what panned out. The pick of the entire game so far in Haaland's hat-trick at 16/1, but let down in extremely unlucky circumstances by the shorter leg being bust due to Clarke only getting 10 minutes on the field. He did manage a shot, but it was off target according to SofaScore. @Smiley Culture is the new leader after a 3rd win in 4 weeks. Bacon saved somewhat by Birmingham's late winner. As mentioned elsewhere, although the stakes are only £5, £10 and £20 I've made an exception here to allow a £15 stake due to the selections coming separately with £20 and £10 stakes so I thought that was the fairest solution. In truth though I wonder if there's a case to just allow any stake up to X amount but maybe something for others to think about. @RandoEFC picks up a 2nd win in 3 as well but unluckily is knocked off the top. Very fine margins here. Leverkusen are finally beaten but they still managed to win a half of their game. Bayern won 2-0 with a goal in either half. Ideal really. I'm back with a loss and as per every time I've picked an early game ready for another at the weekend I've been bust by it. Missing by the skin of my teeth too as Leicester scored a 4th from 25+ yards in injury time. @CaaC (John) isn't having a good season so far with another pair of teams losing. @Stan's ever reliable Gateshead pick comes up trumps again but the double is blown by a goalless game in Northampton. @...Dan's £20 stakes are backfiring so far, with a third loss from three leaving him bottom of the table. The September international break next - probably my least favourite weekend of the season. Way too early for a break and very little to bet on either. But I shall find an angle. And probably lose.

It's this sort of thing as well. How does a club of their stature get away with it like this? Just improbable decline. Old Trafford sounded quite toxic earlier but still deserved worse. I think that crowd is way too lenient. Ten Hag keeping his job was hilarious. They weren't just underwhelming last season they were lucky to be even 8th. It's just more of the same. Ten Hag is a fraud.