Dan

Buonanotte suspended. Vardy, Ayew, Fatawu probably all out too. Comfortable away win. After the anomaly freak stat that we'd scored in every game we are now destined to go on a run of games without scoring, which started in our last. 0-2.

Chelsea to win to nil at Leicester is 11/5 I think. Ridiculous.

Very quiet week this week - even I completely forgot which I think is the first time ever. Two players, two losses, but no table moves. Think @CaaC (John) can consider himself very unlucky this week as Germany romped home (albeit at the shortest odds backed by anybody old season) and Turkey largely dominated, even missing an 89th minute penalty, but couldn't get the win. @Stan landed the Poland Scotland cards, just, as the 40th and 50th booking points arrived in the 93rd and 95th minutes. However Serbia v Denmark was let down by a repeat of the Euros group game where it ended goalless. The booking points won at a canter, the corners also won.

Having an absolute belter of a save here in Czech Republic. I'll do a proper review of it. Could be on the cusp of something pretty outrageous.

Quiet week but it's three losers this time out. I can only assume people forgot - I usually tag people in a post as a bit of a reminder and didn't so my bad I guess. I don't think anybody made any terrible picks here. I think we were all fairly close. Noah were absolutely terrible but in fairness, even within this prism they weren't a million miles off getting a consolation goal. @RandoEFC again you have to say was quite unlucky. Tottenham have been winning those games all season so for them to lose is a real turnup. @Stan I feel like I call unlucky every week but once again I think you'd have to say he was - with Gabela missing a penalty which would've given him a winner, and profit overall for the whole league. No movement in the table this week. Reminder for next @Smiley Culture @CaaC (John) @Lucas @Pyfish @...Dan although I do think we have struggled on these weeks for a little while.

That is pretty much exactly what I expect to pan out. Where we've had some luck against Ipswich and Southampton probably is a bit of a false flag in the long run because all it serves to do is keep a bad manager in post before it's too late. I've seen with the way they just let Rodgers rot everything in 2022/23 that they are not proactive. The only thing that gives me any hope is that Rodgers did have genuine credit in the bank here and Cooper has virtually none, as well as him being a lot tougher to get rid of due to his contract. They did prove though in time they would get rid - they just did it at the dumbest possible time. I have seen enough from Cooper. He's totally out of his depth at this level. A poor coach who the players clearly don't really respect, the fans don't really support and was only appointed on the pretence of us being in a far weaker bargaining position than it turned out we were in. We would be criticised by the media but their track record tells me this would be a good thing anyway. There is nothing being built, no foundations being laid, we're just throwing teams out hoping for the best and quite often we're finding it. But then I don't think you can rely on playing Ipswich or Southampton going down to 10 men every week. Cooper out.

Three straight hammerings is embarrassing imo. I don't even expect us to go there and win but we're getting frequently rolled there in their absolute worst state. It's a wasted opportunity as much as anything. I'm really unimpressed with us. Frankly lucky to be where we are.

Surprise surprise, we get close to overall profit and everyone loses like night follows day.

Man Utd fans must think we're an absolute joke of a club. We must be the only ones in the country scared of going to that ground in 2024. 3-0 today. 5-2 last week. 3-0 in 2023. It's absolutely pathetic.

History repeating itself from two years ago IMO. We are abundantly bad, in the three worst teams in the league but the table doesn't yet reflect it and our decision makers will once again fail to see it, and act too late. I've seen enough from Cooper. He hasn't got a clue.

Cooper. I've seen enough. If he sees May, well, probably February/March we will be going down again.

This manager is not the answer. Get him out.

Every time without fail when I do one to get it underway.

I'm going to stick Chelsea to beat Noah with both teams to score as my first pick. 5/2 odds. Chelsea surely win the game, but Noah's results in Europe this season tell me they're not quite the no-hopers the odds imply they are.

Five profitable weeks out of seven, though we do owe quite a lot this week to @CaaC (John) who landed a 7/1 double to take himself off the bottom all the way up to third in the table. Haven't got time for a full write up this week but think the general level was high - even those who lost were not a million miles out. @Stan once again is unlucky.

Wissa FGS. Boosted to 12.25 on 365. But £10 stake.

My comment was just about how you're coming back from the dead a bit in this league. I've not updated the table yet but I think you're off the bottom. Just occurred I haven't picked anything myself this weekend.

I will give Ayew some credit, very much his buy and if all of his goals are going to be this decisive then he's worth it. I did say when we signed him that he's somebody you bring on. Agree with you though. We're a bad side. We will be in the bottom three in December.

Who's that knocking on the window?

Some very eerie similarities to the Southampton game. Penalty not given to them (wrongly again for me) with us a goal behind, red card ensues from the same incident, Ayew steals us a result in injury time. I don't want to be constant doom & gloom (genuinely!) but I actually think that's quite a damaging result for us in the long run. It's good to prevent Ipswich getting that confidence boosting win and I think they'll be absolutely sick with that, but I think we're demonstrating a really poor level of play for the most part and our 'OK' results are going to dry up by the time it's too late. We've had two big strokes of fortune in our two biggest games of the season so far and I think this is what will paper over the cracks. If I had to describe that game today it would be the first Championship game I've ever seen have VAR. Really poor level on show from both sides. Ipswich have intensity and very little else. Cooper's just guessing, he's got nothing about him at all for me, he's trying to go back to playing Maresca's system which tells me he's got very little idea of his own and very little belief in anything he's truly doing. Our fixtures are turning and I think we'll be put right back into it. It's big to not lose to them, and we definitely owed them a last minute equaliser after they did the exact same thing in both games against us last season, but I think it's a big paper over the cracks job sadly. I hope I'm wrong.

Terrible stats. We play defensively yet have no idea how to actually keep chances or goals out. Ipswich's shots line tomorrow is about 14 according to bookies which is a pretty bad indictment of us and what is expected. I think Forest and how they played last week is what he's aiming for but we're miles off being able to execute it and his lobsided full back system is just making us piss easy to play through. As poor as Justin looks I do wonder if he's being hung out to dry a bit. The amount we've scored is an anomaly as well. I don't get how we keep scoring as many as we do. I mean it's not the worst thing, but I just don't think it's particularly sustainable playing like this. Ipswich will smell blood tomorrow. I expect plenty of goals. I wouldn't be shocked by a 4-3. Ipswich are pretty awful at the back themselves. I've been surprised how poor they've looked this season, I expected a bit more.

Think we're going to hand them their first win and we'll be right back in the shit. I notice the bottom six are all playing each other. Three away wins would create a pretty big gap for the bottom teams standards. If we do win, we are at worst 7 points clear of 18th. That feels pretty big.

Actually rate that appointment. I've tracked him since we were loosely linked about 4 years ago and he seems to just consistently do well. He's made very much the third wheel of Portuguese football into the best team over there.