Stan

A relatively low-scoring opening PL week with only 21 goals scored. 21 being the magic number for @Storts as he soars to the top of the rankings with the first round completed. He was the only one to score over 20 points, with his nearest challenger being @Pyfish who scored 17 points. Those two, plus @Lucas were the only 3 players to get more than 1 Perfect Score. But it's also worth mentioning @Rucksackfranzose as he was the only one to correctly guess a 1-1 draw between Leicester and Spurs, whilst everyone else went for an away thrashing. Only 5 points separate 2nd and last place!

Week 2 Results Derby 1-0 Middlesbrough Osnabruck 0-4 Freiburg Parma 1-1 Fiorentina Rangers 2-0 St Johnstone Bayer Leverkusen 2-2 Stuttgart Valencia 1-2 Barcelona Rennes 3-0 Lyon Palmeiras 2-1 Sao Paulo Boavista 0-1 Sporting Braga Mallorca 1-1 Real Madrid Round-up A couple of surprise results greeting us for Week 2, as Derby secured their first home win of the season, and Mallorca salvaging a draw at home to the superstars at Real Madrid. Meanwhile, the early pace has now been set by @nawoo who secured a big 19 points to fly into top spot. He's now 6 ahead of @RandoEFC who drops to 2nd place, and @Viva la FCB who climbed up into 3rd. Only 3 points separate those 2 and @Rucksackfranzose in 8th place. And then a further 2 points back to @CaaC (John) in joint 12th spot with @Pyfish and @Spike. The latter of those was one of only 3 players to get more than 1 Perfect Score - @Viva la FCB also getting 2 and a high of 4 from @nawoo.

This. Although it was Rodgers at the time, I've not felt that sense of urgency and real energy and dynamism about the place and about our football since we were blowing away top teams in his first 2 seasons. It reminded me of the 2-1 win vs Spurs (Maddison scoring outside the box), or beating Arsenal 2-0 under the lights in the rain (Vardy and Maddison scoring). If we can take that forward for the rest of our home games I do feel like teams won't enjoy coming here. My worry being that we may go a goal down quite regularly so will often need a response. I do like that Cooper took responsibility for the first half, in being too negative, though. Hopefully he can rectify that because we do need to start games fast. Hopefully some more depth and quality and creativity can be added in the rest of the transfer window.

Happy to lose!

Love him.

Oh, and hope Bentancur is okay. Incident was on other side of the pitch but you know it's serious when players call for the doctors immediately and urgently. Fingers crossed his injury isn't serious.

Had the twatting in the first half but unlike Cardiff, we stayed in the game. Somehow. I'd be fuming if I was a Spurs fan. Not killing off the game and then dropping shite like that in the 2nd half. Especially Son who I've never seen play like that against us. Vardy is Vardy. What a hero. Loves giving it as much as he gets it. Thought Buonanotte was superb. Need more creativity around him but really impressed with his game tonight. If we can replicate some of the football we played in that 2nd half then we might just be okay. But we can't play like we did in the first half, not all teams will miss the opportunities to punish us. Glad we have a manager that takes responsibility as well and not shirk away from it. Says the first half was too negative and that was on him.

So we're playing Vardy which is great. But he's had a grand total of zero minutes in pre-season, so not so great As @Bluebird Hewitt said, we're in for an absolute twatting...

Mine's gone up to 5/4. So an extra £3 return...

Did they ever play together? Would you say you see Skipp as a defensive midfielder, or more of a box-to-box but perhaps more with a defensive mindset? Qualities you mention there all indicate towards being more of the former. And being good at tackling perhaps more aggressive and physical than Winks.

all kick-offs 15.00 (BST) unless stated Saturday 24th August, 2024 Brighton vs Man Utd, 12.30 Crystal Palace vs West Ham Fulham vs Leicester Man City vs Ipswich Southampton vs Nottm Forest Tottenham vs Everton Aston Villa vs Arsenal, 17.30 Sunday 25th August, 2024 Bournemouth vs Newcastle, 14.00 Wolves vs Chelsea, 14.00 Liverpool vs Brentford, 16.30 Please get ALL predictions in by SATURDAY 24th AUGUST - Topic will be LOCKED at 12.30pm (BST)!!

@RandoEFC @CaaC (John) @Tommy @Bluebird Hewitt @Azeem @Viva la FCB @nawoo @Rucksackfranzose @Coma @Spike @Pyfish @6666

all kick-offs 15.00 (BST) unless stated Saturday 24th August, 2024 Bristol City vs Coventry, 12.30 Hibernian vs Dundee Lyon vs Monaco, 16.00 Udinese vs Lazio, 17.30 Espanyol vs Real Sociedad, 20.30 Sunday 25th August, 2024 CF Montreal vs New England, 00.30 LA Galaxy vs Atlanta Utd, 03.30 Magdeburg vs Schalke, 12.30 Sparta Rotterdam vs Feyenoord, 13.30 Swansea vs Cardiff Please get ALL predictions in by SATURDAY 24th AUGUST - Topic will be LOCKED at 12.30pm (BST)!!

Extremely underwhelmed. Firstly, not a position as a priority we need to strengthen. Whilst it's a position I'd like to strengthen at some point, we should be focusing on players that are likely to get us goals and assists, not someone that is just going to sit in the middle of the park and recycle the ball or recover it. We need to be getting wingers or another decent attacker. Whilst they don't come cheap, if we're going to spend £20m+ on Skipp, you must think we have some other money about to fulfil those positions. In saying that, even if we didn't need wingers or a striker, I wouldn't be impressed spending that amount on Skipp anyway. I'd like to think we're selling Soumare, or have concrete plans to do so. Get him off the wage bill and cut our losses. Useless midfielder.

Lively Super Cup game!

Can red cards be given for divers? Any examples? Or do you think Schar should have escaped punishment because he plays for a team you support...?

Two subs combining for Villa to retake the lead.

What's worse than a twatting?

Cash got the ball. Shouldn't be a penalty.

Ah yes, a red for playacting. That old rule. Schar is silly for doing it and deserved the red. Should know better not to put your head on to someone else's...

Similarly to Dan...

PM me the rest of the fixtures.

Shit game. Decent goal to win it. That Bassey clearance attempt was comical. United should have got the 2nd.

Two dives by Utd this game. One punished.