Degenerate Crackhead and Lawro week 11
Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2014 3:50 pmNo prizes for guessing Lawros prediction (boring bastard), Instead of a human, Lawro's opponent for this weekend's Premier League fixtures is a computer game: Football Manager 2015, the latest edition of the long-running management simulation series.
The game has a database of 605,000 players and staff, collated by 1,300 scouts around the world in 451 countries and regions.
Football Manager predicts Alexis Sanchez will score twice to help Arsenal edge out Swansea
Miles Jacobson, the studio director of Sports Interactive, the company behind Football Manager, told BBC Sport: "We have someone at the studio whose job it is to simulate real-life matches on the game for media around the world. Sometimes we do well, sometimes less so.
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"Last year we did one for the Major League Soccer play-offs in the United States and not only did we get the result of each match right, but we also got the score correct in the final. We are very proud of that one."
Watford fan Jacobson has also given his predictions for this weekend's games.
"The funny thing is when footballers complain about their stats. It happens a lot," he explained.
"Footballer and their agents will get in touch to say that their stats are wrong - often it is agents trying to get the value of their clients up because the data is not just used in the game.
Merson has decided we are not good enough to beat QPR this week!
The game has a database of 605,000 players and staff, collated by 1,300 scouts around the world in 451 countries and regions.
Football Manager predicts Alexis Sanchez will score twice to help Arsenal edge out Swansea
Miles Jacobson, the studio director of Sports Interactive, the company behind Football Manager, told BBC Sport: "We have someone at the studio whose job it is to simulate real-life matches on the game for media around the world. Sometimes we do well, sometimes less so.
Continue reading the main story
"Last year we did one for the Major League Soccer play-offs in the United States and not only did we get the result of each match right, but we also got the score correct in the final. We are very proud of that one."
Watford fan Jacobson has also given his predictions for this weekend's games.
"The funny thing is when footballers complain about their stats. It happens a lot," he explained.
"Footballer and their agents will get in touch to say that their stats are wrong - often it is agents trying to get the value of their clients up because the data is not just used in the game.
QPR v Man City (17:30 GMT)
Wednesday's performance against CSKA Moscow was Manchester City's worst of the season but it did not come out of the blue.
It had been coming. Now City's manager Manuel Pellegrini needs to make sure it does not happen again.
Pellegrini comes across as a laidback nice guy. I just wonder if he needs to turn himself into Mr Nasty to get City playing the way they can again.
Maybe a scenario where he steams into his players and goes absolutely nuts at them would work, and let them know that, as the manager, he is not going to put up with it any longer.
I just feel that the City squad needs somebody to lay into them to tell them some home truths At Liverpool, I played under Joe Fagan who was another nice guy who knew the game and treated his players well. Occasionally, though, he would turn and go for you and then you knew you were in trouble.
Whether it is Pellegrini himself, his assistant Brian Kidd or somebody else, I just feel that the City squad needs somebody to lay into them to tell them some home truths - like who is not playing for the team, what they are doing wrong and what will happen if they do not buck their ideas up.
That performance against CSKA was mystifying bearing in mind that City had just beaten Manchester United and badly needed a win to get their Champions League campaign up and running in Group E. Instead, they put in a total non-performance.
Pellegrini will demand a response on Saturday and, if his team plays anything like they can, they should be too strong for QPR.
I would expect QPR to try to use Bobby Zamora to exploit any weaknesses in the City defence but, if Pellegrini's side can deal with that, they will win easily.
Lawro's prediction: 0-2
Football Manager's prediction: 0-2 (City scorers: Sergio Aguero & Stevan Jovetic)
Miles's prediction: When City play what they would class as lesser opposition they have a tendency to turn it on for about 15 minutes and then not do anything for the rest of the game. City will get three in 15 minutes or so, but still only win by the odd goal. 2-3
Merson has decided we are not good enough to beat QPR this week!
There are a lot of other managers in the league who would like Man City’s crisis! I think their attitude is poor, though, as they should be beating anybody and it will be a hard game under the lights on Saturday night with Bobby Zamora pinning them back. I really think QPR can get something out of this game. It took City until the 80th minute to break Aston Villa down and they were hanging on against Man United, as well. They are really struggling.
PAUL PREDICTS: 1-1