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Pundit: Declan Rice set for disappointment as another West Ham United star backed to win World Cup
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
Frank McAvennie has named Lucas Paqueta as the West Ham player who he expects to have the best World Cup tournament this winter.
The Brazilian signed for the Hammers in a £51.3m deal in the summer from Olympique Lyonnais, but has so far struggled to make a huge impact at the London Stadium having suffered with injuries.
But after being selected in the Brazil squad for the upcoming tournament in Qatar, which starts today (20 November), McAvennie believes he is likely to be part of their starting lineup and thinks they’re among the favourites to win the tournament, unlike England and Declan Rice.
“Paqueta will be playing every game, so he’ll do well,” he told West Ham Zone.
“Everyone is going on about they’re going away, but they’d have been playing and training anyway. They would probably have played more games if we didn’t have the World Cup over the next four or five weeks.
“All this nonsense about fatigue. He’s Brazilian and he’ll be absolutely loving it over there.
“He’s going to play in every game. I think Declan will play in every game. That’s two at West Ham who are going to be playing every single game.
“It’s only seven games if they get there. Wouldn’t it be great to have either Declan or Paqueta come back, with West Ham having picked up another World Cup? It would be wonderful.
“I don’t think it’ll happen with Declan but I think it could happen with Paqueta. Little prediction here, I’ve got a feeling it’ll be Argentina, that romantic side of me wants Messi to do it, but it’ll be between them and Brazil.
“I think the Europeans are out of it this year.”