BBC Pundit Mark Lawrenson predicts a 2-0 West Ham victory before Christmas which raise the Hammers as high as 12th in the Premier League.
Lawro told the BBC website: “West Ham are another team that have turned the corner.
They have to be a bit careful here, because Newcastle are on such a bad run – the Hammers cannot afford to think they can just turn up.
But I can understand why they are confident, because David Moyes has got his mojo back.
Watching him now, it reminds me of when he started out as a manager with Preston – that hunger and enthusiasm is back, his whole demeanour. He is on the warpath.
Newcastle are trying to strengthen, starting by trying to take Kenedy on loan from Chelsea. He would be a good addition, but they still need a centre-forward – and quickly.
Lawro’s prediction: 2-0″
The advice from Australia!!
WHU 3 Newcastle 1
Interesting from Lawro: love the way he chooses to attribute our upturn to Moyes having rediscovered his mojo. Not to the inherent qualities of the players we have to make a choice to step up and take responsibility to do what they are paid to do. This is implicitly insulting. As if players are somehow ‘playbots’ who only play well when a coach or manager presses a ‘play well” button, or chooses the right ‘menu button’. Why do pundits and others always assume that team success is attributable to coaching and management? Don’t players also have the ‘free will’ to show their qualities without some kind of puppet master coaching manipulator pulling their strings? What a ridiculous way of being conned by ‘management speak’. So many companies do well because of the people on the payroll, not necessarily because of the senior management and leaders of the organization who may be corrupt, incompetent, immoral or unethical.
The players completely lost faith in Slaven because he did not provide a consistent ‘game plan’. He was stubborn in his selection approach. By contrast, Moyes is an ‘old school’ manager who has set out to reproduce his Preston and Everton formula with the Irons. Good luck with that. If it works, we stay up. If Moyes ‘mojo’ fades we can revisit the championship. Moyes has a mixed talent squad to be sure: ageing, short of pace, identified gaps in key midfield, striker and centre back positions that will hold development back. Though there is sufficient player quality, despite shortcomings, to secure our PL status. That is clear to any Iron. So enough on ‘Messiah manager’s’ and ‘mojo’. This is superstitious nonsense. Thanks Lawro for your assertions.
Mmmm….as for predictions about the Winter solstice points haul, there could be an alternative, slightly more thoughtful view, to Lawro’s shallow Hal punditry. We are in a tightly compressed group of mediocre PL teams. Perm any three from 12th to 20th for relegation, technically speaking, Will the next four games sort out the tight pack? We are in a ‘gutter fight’. The next three games are against teams who will be looking to haul themselves out of the mire: like us. They have limited player quality, like us. They have some key players who are talented and can turn a game, like us. Forecasting a points tally against this backdrop from the next three games is remarkably tricky. What injuries will we amass? What disciplinary points will we pick up? What variable refereeing judgments will we encounter?
9 points from Newcastle, WB and Bournemouth would be ideal: also quite unrealistic. 4 points from these three games might seem pessimistic as if I’m not a bubble-blowing Iron to many bubbles blowers. By my reckoning 4 points is a do-able target. Anything more will be a seasonal bonus.
Hi Ruff, for sure the players let themselves and Bilic down but imho its hard to argue that the coaching team including Moyes haven’t been responsible for the uplift, Moyes actually said the team haven’t done any specific fitness training all the work has been done with the ball which is the type of training most players like, based purely on that imagine what he might do with a full pre-season but that does back your arguement up that the players let themselves down. Like you I take anything Lawro says with a pinch of salt, he usually backs us when he wants us to lose and Newcastle being one of his old clubs this is one of those weeks, lets hope we make his prediction come true 2 0 would be very nice, Newcastle are an organised team under Rafa and I expect he will set them up to defend deep and be hard to break down, without Lanzini in the team he probably knows we will have to come up with something special to beat them, I wonder if Quina might be given another chance to impress, it’s certainly a game we should have a decent share of posession in, unless Rafa changes gears and goes all out attack. The next 3 games are like cup finals we need to produce I won’t be happy with less than 6 points and 5 should be the bare minimum, in order to avoid relegation we need to average 1.7 points a game between now and the start of April where we have an unenviable last month and half of fixtures, the more we get ahead of the curve the easier that will be and if we can get to 40 points by April we could conceivably do a lot better but that’s a long way ahead to think we just have to be right on point every league match I think Moyes will have the team motivated COYI !!!
Agree 32 & I hope they cup preformance didn’t slow our momentum.
And Moyes in history is better in his 2nd season him & staff have been great.
I would hope at least 7 points.
I don’t think and have said we should lose any of this games & if we keep preforming like we have been minus Cup game we shouldn’t.
Lanzini being out Hurts but all the more reason why I have been saying we need a creator & have for a long while. Hopefully we will get 1 in Jan w some youth & pace.
But we can def win this game & I would like to think we can get at least 2 goals. If Anrie is like he was at Stoke but with some better finishing & their GK isn’t has good I would think we can win 2-0 maybe another 3-0.
I’d like to keep another clean sheet as well.
I would play Arnie in #10 role behind 2 strikers let him roam & create. Can have Ant & Chic up front or Sahko & Ant etc.