West Ham head to Manchester United looking to breathe some kind of life into Graham Potter’s tenure ahead of the summer and the pundit verdicts are in.
The Hammers head to face Man United at Old Trafford without a win in eight games.
In fact West Ham have won only three matches in 16 since Graham Potter took over back in January.
Even Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim, the man who flew to London for talks with West Ham’s owners about replacing David Moyes this time last year, is faring better than Potter.
Not by much in the Premier League, where the Red Devils are two points and two positions above 17th placed West Ham.
But Amorim does have the Europa League – where Man United will face Spurs in the final – as a potential season-saver given it will result in a trophy and qualification for the Champions League.
Potter is desperate for a win as doubts emerge over his ability to turn West Ham around.
From Merson to Lawro, pundits predict Man United vs West Ham
The Hammers boss won’t get many better chances of a win at Old Trafford.
Manchester United could have as many as 12 players missing or rested for West Ham.
West Ham’s owners have thrown their backing behind Potter ahead of the trip to face Man United.
It is fans the 49-year-old needs to start convincing, though.
A good way to start doing that would be beating Man United – even if they’re one of the worst Red Devils sides in history, according to Amorim himself.
Manchester United have the better of this fixture historically with 74 wins to West Ham’s 49. There have been 32 draws.
But what do the so-called experts think?
From Paul Merson to Mark Lawrenson, five Premier League pundits are saying the same thing about Man United vs West Ham.
And it really doesn’t bode well for Potter – who has been brutally panned by every single one of them.
Merson thinks Manchester United will be buoyed by their 7-1 aggregate win over Athletic Club in the Europa League semi-finals.
As far as West Ham are concerned, the prospect of Spurs lifting that trophy doesn’t bear thinking about. So Hammers fans will want to see Man United in good form ahead of the final in 10 days’ time.
But according to Merson, the momentum Man United have gained from it will see them extend Potter’s ‘horrendous’ run.
Potter brutally panned by five top Premier League pundits
“I fully expect Manchester United to make it count against a struggling West Ham,” Merson told SportsKeeda when predicting a 3-1 home win.
“Graham Potter is on a horrendous run of form, having not won in the last eight games! United could punish them bad if they’re not careful here…
“Three points but no clean sheet for (Man) United in this one!”
Premier League legend and all-time record goalscorer Alan Shearer says West Ham have not impressed him at all under Potter.
But he believes the spectre of the Europa League final might help the Hammers get a draw.
“What a tough one to call,” Shearer told The Metro.
“Man United will be through to the Europa League final and West Ham I’m not impressed with at all so for that reason I’ll go for a draw.”
Lawrenson is infamous among West Ham fans for predicting them to lose almost every week when he was doing predictions for BBC Sport.
Now Lawro has stuck the boot in on Potter too, describing West Ham as ‘shocking’ under him as he predicts a win for Man United.
‘Shocking West Ham lucky to stay up’ says Lawro
“West Ham are just shocking at the moment and they’re lucky the three that came up have been as bad as they have,” Lawro said.
“Manchester United played the first team in the Europa League on Thursday but they might get a little kick in performances now with everyone trying to get a spot in the starting line up for the final.”
The man who replaced Lawro as the Beeb’s prediction pundit, Chris Sutton, says he is not even sure he wants to watch the game between what’s likely to be a Manchester United’s reserves and ‘such a poor West Ham side with nothing to play for’.
“A lot depends on the (Man) United team selection,” Sutton said on BBC Sport when predicting a 1-1 draw.
“It is hard enough making predictions anyway, but it’s even harder when there could be mass changes, and you don’t know whether it is the (Man) United first team who are going to play, or be more like the youth team. That makes this more of a guess, when I am used to applying science to my predictions, but I wish I had gone for West Ham to draw with Tottenham last week, and I am not going to make the same mistake this time.”
Final word to Sky Sports’ leading football analyst Lewis Jones.
In his latest column ‘Jones Knows’, the expert believes West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen will be key to what he thinks will be a 2-2 draw.
But he too slammed Potter’s lack of impact, labelling the Hammers ‘bang average’.
“The one constant this season in a bang average West Ham side has been Jarrod Bowen’s attacking output,” Jones said.
“He will have been disappointed not to have kicked on in terms of improving last year’s numbers but a per-90 average of 0.59 goal involvements is still something to be proud of playing for a team who could finish 17th in the Premier League. Bowen has four goal involvements in his last three games.”
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