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Mark Lawrenson love-in with Sam Allardyce ahead of Everton v Newcastle

6 years ago
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Mark Lawrenson has gone over the top about Sam Allardyce ahead of Monday night’s match.

Rather than a preview of the Everton v Newcastle game, it is more of a cheerleader exercise in favour of Fat Sam.

Lawrenson is outraged that an official club survey has been sent to fans asking them to rate the job Sam Allardyce has done this season, even though it also asks supporters to similarly rate the players and club hierarchy.

The BBC pundit coming out with a dramatic ‘where is the game going to if all clubs start doing what Everton have done?.’

Mark Lawrenson also does one of those classic things of saying fans have every right to an opinion…but they are wrong!

He says ‘it is obvious that a lot of Everton fans are not fans of Allardyce’ but that Sam Allardyce ‘has not done a bad job’ and has been a success in the job because his ‘remit was to keep them in the Premier League.’

I don’t think anybody seriously thought Everton would go down, yes they had an imbalanced squad but still had a lot of good players.

When Allardyce took charge of his first game, Everton were 13th in the table with 15 points from 14 games, two points off ninth.

Now they are ninth with 42 points from 34 games, Allardyce had added 27 points from 20 games at a rate of 1.35 points per game, a slight improvement on 1.07 points per match before he arrived.

However, they did have a tough start to the season and eight of the first ten games were against the eight teams who are currently top eight in the Premier League.

In addition, Sam Allardyce was given £50m to buy Tosun and Walcott in January.

To make his point, Lawrenson goes on to predict a 2-1 win for Everton, seemingly wanting to believe there will be a rallying effort and backlash from the players, supposedly wound up in their manager’s favour because of the fan survey question.

Rafa Benitez has seen his team win their last four games and they have only lost two in the last 13 games, away at Liverpool and Man City.

Lawrenson still predicting defeat even though ‘Newcastle have done brilliantly’ and Rafa Benitez has ‘definitely done a good job’.

An interesting game awaits and it would be very satisfying to see Newcastle ahead of Everton after Monday night. I’d love it.

Mark Lawrenson talking to BBC Sport:

“There is a lot of speculation about Sam Allardyce’s future at Goodison Park – but where is the game going to if all clubs start doing what Everton have done this week, with their fans survey about his performance?

“It is obvious that a lot of Everton fans are not fans of Allardyce, which is fine – that is their opinion. But you know what? He has not done a bad job, and he has done the job he was brought in to do.

“I suppose when you sign an 18-month deal like he did, you are not expecting to be at a club for a long time anyway – in theory he only has one more season left.

“Whatever happens next at Everton, I do not understand asking the fans. I don’t get that at all – who have they picked to ask, for starters?

“Are they all Everton season ticket holders? And can Liverpool fans have a vote? Rate the Everton manager out of 10? Most Liverpool fans would probably give him 11.

“Seriously, though, whatever you think about Allardyce’s tactics, when he took the job in November, the Toffees were in danger of being relegated. They were a complete mess.

“Allardyce’s remit was to keep them in the Premier League, not to recreate the glory days of Alan Ball, Howard Kendall and Colin Harvey and the Everton ‘School of Science’.

“Actually, if you think about it, Allardyce’s approach is a school of science – just maybe not the one that the fans wanted.

“But, if Everton do decide they want a change, it would not surprise me to find him at somewhere like West Brom next season.

“He is not going to be short of offers because his record speaks for itself so, if he leaves, then it will not be the end of the world for him.

“When we are talking about managers who have done a good job, then Rafael Benitez is definitely one of them. Newcastle’s run of four straight wins has taken them to safety.

“There is always one team that completely bombs at this stage of the season – arguably Stoke this time – and another who pulls results out of the fire and leaves you asking ‘whoa, where did that come from?’.

“Newcastle have done brilliantly but if the results of the Everton fans’ survey are in, then I bet the Toffees go and win.

“Prediction is Everton 2 Newcastle 1.”

Everton v Newcastle Match Betting with BetVictor:

Newcastle win 12/5Draw 9/4Everton win 13/10

Perez to score first goal 9/1NUFC win 2-0 17/1Slimani to score in both halves 50/1

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