I bet the Portugese League does prioritize defense over attack than the EPL does, so I really don't English team's defense are any much better than what we've got in the Portugal, so the defense in Portugal being deemed as farmers league is completely wrong, take a look at the leagues goals conceded average to goals score, and compare into to what we've got in the EPL, you'll see the difference, and it doesn't even look close.

Darwin Nunez did scored a lot of goals and created chances while he was at Benfica but let's be honest I think he's still the same guy he was at Benfica or at least he's level hasn't dropped significantly as the media or everyone else might be suggesting, Nunez was quite a very wasteful striker at Benfica too, the huge number of chances he gets just to convert one or two every fortnight is what made most overlook his conversion rate, and focused more on the number goals he scores. Premier League standard and the level of competition within the club might not have giving him the luxury of getting 6+ clear cut chances that should squandered every game.

That said, I still think he's one of the best or most complete conventional No. 9 player, he's got every skill set that's required of such role, from pace, to his dribble, and off the ball positioning too is exceptional, he's finishing touch is the only that's subpar, I'd rather have him over Haaland everyday as a coach, all he just needs in my candid opinion is to have a better finishing or conversion skill.

I agree with Trofo on this one, Palmer's shot was a decent attempt at goal, maybe could have even beaten keeper who knows, I believe it's just how Palmer often take his shot with not so much power, just like Kai Havertz does, the power on their shot often would probably not be enough to kill a fly 

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I think I've finally gotten the full grasp of the new FPL challenge, to be honest, I believe I like it more, and might even give priority over the classic one come next season if we're to chose between the two, or better still we could have a 2 pots pool like we currently do with the Champions league pool. It's not as complicated as I think it was going to, lol. The next challenge is titled "Red Rivalry" with players from the Liverpool and Man United derby getting double points, If I knew it's just as easy or straight forward as this, I would have kept our small tournament going while leaving 'Frka out of it. It takes just around 5 minutes or less to get my team up for each round, while I still spend hours to arrive at just one transfer choice in the classic one.

The Dub nation fans definitely could not have wanted their Splash brothers back in a better time than this, at they very end of the season fighting for it all, and if that shows anything, it just shows that the team can come through under any form of pressure and whatever is on the line, they can still put fear into any of the top seeded teams. Although the Curry-Klay-Draymond dynasty is coming to an end imminently, but could they still have one more push to go deep into the post season right ? A win over Houston Rockets has almost guaranteed them a play-in tournament at the very least.

Still much of cagey game to end the first half between Dallas Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks, the Mavs have not been able to take the game by the scruff of the neck yet, but they'll head into the locker room with a 7 points advantage, having just taken their first lead of the game few minutes before the end of the 2nd quarter. Warriors on the other hand started the game with good rhythm, both Steph and Clay scoring 16 points from the Warriors 33 points of the first quarter, that's got to be the best positive start for any Warriors game.

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I went with 76ers ML @ 2.27 vs the Miami Heat, with Joel Embiid back, things can only get better for 76ers surely as they've got a really good roster to bank on right now.

It was just yet another epic shit show, and if there is anything I'm positive about for the round, that would be the fact that I saved my transfer for the next round and didn't get all too carried away by Arsenal or Liverpool fixture to hunt for attacking points, because it would have been a waste of transfers for me.

Now, let's see what I make of 2 free transfers for the next game week  

This is an underrated opinion to be honest  

I mean Liverpool does look like the standout team to get the most goals for the game week, but how many times have we witnessed Mo Salah and/or Darwin Nunez fire blank, even when Liverpool score around 4-5 goals, that's really not an unprecedented event, is it ? Though, Salah is lately having more involvement in Liverpool's goals, Nunez is still more of a coinflip even if Liverpool are playing a side from the Conference league, and he gets plethora of chances.

And rightly so should they be, because implementing additional or extra match days now would be highly unfair to them, maybe extra options to stake on might not be as unfair because the possibilities of that was mentioned before the beginning or at the early stages into the pool kickoff.

Since each Match days was determined by the official game rounds as it also is in the pot A, the interval and how long it takes for one match day to get concluded is irrelevant and not a mistake imo, more so it's just the maiden season of the pot B, so there is no way to get it all near perfect, however, I think it should get even better as it progresses, especially with how widely received the new format is.

By the time Wembanyama gets into a couple of year of his NBA there will be a whole lot of awards at his mercy to be honest, with all that he's pulled off just in his rookie season, It will take a really really long while before we get another talent like this.

I really don't know but then I just hope he'll get really good team (guys) that will transform this talent into multiple NBA rings and a beautiful basketball story, because MVPs, DPOYs, All NBA and All Star appearances will most definitely come consistently for him.

I don't think Man City's comfortable win against Aston Villa pose any threat to Haaland's position in the team. Alvarez was Haaland's replacement for the game but despite Alvarez playing for the entire 90 minutes, he couldn't get on the scoresheet, although he did contribute a lot to the team's game flow and play build ups better than Haaland would probably have done had he start the game instead.
Guardiola in my opinion, decided to make sure all his players are ready for the final laps of the season, since they're still competing on 3 fronts. De Bruyne didn't play either, while both players (KDB and Haaland) were already warming up to get introduced into the match, scoring another goal which guaranteed the team's victory was logically why neither of them later got subbed on eventually.

I have had some really good picks in the past concerning Juventus, but they’ve got me undone in consecutive weeks right now, they were the reason I lost the last round, and I would have stood a chance to at least get a draw for this round too but then It’s not going to happen because of Juventus, I expected a struggled victory for a team that have just completely just got dominated a few days ago, now they just flip the switch and won comfortably. It’s another L for me in back to back weeks ☹️

Quite a bold statement win from Man City, saying as far as the title challenge and defending the title is concerned Manchester City are not “Foden” yet. Both Arsenal and Liverpool have to keep looking over their shoulders from here on now right ?

Despite the heavy rotation to this Arsenal's starting line up, they've still been way too much to handle for Luton, Arsenal could have easily been up by 3-4 goals just in the first 45 minutes, they'll most likely be heading into the dressing with a 2 goals advantage.

Going by the 44 minutes played so far, this could be still be a 4-5 goals win for Arsenal, while I don't think there should be any expectation from Luton today, as Arsenal have been pretty solid in defense too.

So much for me believing I have tweaked things a bit, I'm still 0/3 to start this round, I don't if know my team is just having a rough patch or they are yet to fully adjust to the new season  but unlike Pochettino the manager is left to figure this out very sooner rather than later because a lot of eyebrows are getting raised already.


I guess the media can be somewhat unfair in this light, but it's just at the early into the season, I can assure you that once the cup phase gets underway the spotlight is usually more shed on the teams outside the top flight.

I don't know what handicap this is based on you said +2 goals, but If that's Man City not to win by 2 goals or more, I really don't think the odds is worth it @ 2.05, I think if Man City are going to win this, it will a kind of statement, or their struggle will just simply continue, I'd have fancy the chances of the latter, if Aston Villa will not be without their biggest goal threat, while Man City defense is kind of getting into a better shape, and that was evident against Arsenal.

My bet for this game would be on an individual team to score certain amount of goals, and my decision is currently tilting towards Aston Villa under 0.5 goals scored.

Trofo, I think it's really not worth the hassle then, what say you ?

I mean, perhaps, we all should focus on other pools and stuff and call it a day with this one, the complexity isn't worth what anyone would have to play for 8 more weeks.

13. Chris Curtis
12. Damon Jackson         
11. Jose Mariscal   
10. Ignacio Bahamondes
9. Valter Walker
8. Charlie Campbell   
7. Alex Morono           
6. Germaine de Randamie         
5. Victor Hugo           
4. Piera Rodríguez         
3. Jean Matsumoto           
2. Dylan Budka           
1. Melissa Mullins

NOT go the Full Distance 5

I think it was time time for me to change things a bit too, I decided to deviate a bit from what I believe would have been my typical answers or mindset to answer the questions, simply because the result haven't been favorable and I'm sure I should have done better in a number of rounds already, let's see what the new approach or change would bring 

It’s in for a penny, in for a pound for me, I’m down with whatever the final decision is, I just hope it’s not my worse fear of being an independent weekly where one needs to join the league again every week, that would be a strenuous especially in terms of keeping tabs and apparently creating a new league every week, I guess we’ll find out soon enough, and budget for the new challenge isn’t unlimited like the last one.

@Trofo @Cryptofrka I’m not sure how the FPL challenge is supposed to work completely, I think it’s a unique challenge for each game week, because the current week is not unlimited budget but rather forward focus or something like I can’t remember, but Forward players are going to be have their points doubled (2X), and it’s as though the league is only valid for one game week, I’m not sure about this though, I just can’t see the league in the current week tab, perhaps it could be visible once the deadline has passed ?