Paul Merson has stated that ‘you can call me mad’ but he is backing relegation-threatened Everton to beat Manchester United on Saturday at Goodison Park, as he told Sportskeeda.
Everton are hovering above the bottom three and Merson thinks defeat against Ralf Rangnick’s men could see the Toffees head for the Championship because of their ‘atrocious’ run-in.
Frank Lampard is probably lucky that he is facing a Man United side that is all over the place and nowhere near the powerhouses that were smashing teams about when he was donning his boots.
Whilst Everton can fall over like a pack of cards, so can this Man United side that is seeing Champions League football slip away from them as the weeks tick by.
Nonetheless, despite Everton losing a crucial relegation fight to Burnley on Wednesday night, Merson is still backing them to do the business against Man United.
“Everton suffered a damaging defeat against Burnley and could be in the bottom three by Saturday evening,” said Merson.
“But something tells me they’re going to beat Manchester United. This is a cup final for Frank Lampard’s side, and they will have to play consistently across 90 minutes to get a result, which has been a major problem for them in recent weeks.
“Manchester United are just all over the place at the moment, they weren’t good enough against Leicester City last weekend. There’s a lot of talk that they’re better off without Cristiano Ronaldo, but I’m afraid I have to disagree with that idea.
“He’s not going to win them the Premier League – I said this when he joined the club – but they are certainly a better team with him – Everton’s next few games are absolutely atrocious and I think they’ll probably get relegated if they lose this one – You can call me mad, but I can see the Toffees getting all three points here.”
Lampard has felt pressure during his career, but most of the time, it has been at the other end of the table.
This is alien to him and, as things stand, Everton are heading for the Championship because there hasn’t been a dramatic turn in form.
It could actually be argued that the Merseyside club have gone backwards under the legendary midfielder.
And whilst it’s not his fault because he walked into a mess, it’s something that he and his coaching staff have to turn around before it’s too late.
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