Noble Makes A Case For His Inclusion

In his column for the Evening Standard* West Ham captain Mark Noble was overjoyed with last weekend's result against Everton but was also wary of reading too much in to one victory, however he did manage a bit of politicising by less than subtley mentioning how well the midfield, which of course included him, had performed during the match.

"Our manager made some changes for Sunday’s game and it worked well. I felt we had a real firm base in midfield with myself, Pedro Obiang and Declan Rice. We knew our jobs." This thinly veiled criticism of the previous midfied partnerships infers that they did NOT know their jobs! Hammers' longest serving player by a country mile has had his quality and abilities questioned on a regular basis, particularly last season and this, however he has 'seen off' a procession of managers who have dropped him at various times only for him to be recalled to the ranks in times of crisis. Noble continued by writing, On Sunday I went into the changing room at Goodison Park after our 3-1 win and just said: “Put the music on!” This was in complete contrast to the preceeding week where "a few home truths were exchanged" in the dressing room after the loss to Wolves

Mark Noble's 'legs', if not gone, are definitely on the way out, but what he lacks in pace he more than compensates for with the commiment and passion for the club he shows, futhermore with the right 'players with energy' around him his lack of speed matters much less. In the past teams have been able to exploit the lack of not just Noble's pace but essentially the entire midfield, moving Obiang and the excellent Declan Rice in to the middle of the Park gives the team a spine that has been lacking.

Eventually Noble will have to be replaced and the club are fortunate to have a couple of potential suitors on board already, Diop and Rice are both young and have incredible futures ahead of them, they are ideal Captain material as they both play in defence/midfield which is where a captain should be, especially when taking in to account the 'captain talking to the Ref rule' that is supposed to be one to one with the Ref to 'argue' the point on behalf of the team. If the Captain is a forward or a Goal Keeper it is far more difficult for them to cover the distance to the Ref than a player in the middle.

For the time being the club need Mark Noble more than ever, however that will not stop fans being on his back from word go if he displays an errant pass or picks up his usual unnecessary yellow card. On reflection it was always going to need a player with 'Claret and Blue in their veins to help intergrate so many new faces in to the team, and with hindsight dropping Noble early on in the season may have been what many fans, including this site, wanted but was not the correct course of action.

Ironically once the team have 'gelled' and are able to kick on a bit, Mark Noble will find his position in the starting line up under pressure again, it must be like ground hog day for him but eventually the day will come for this 'amiable' man to hang up his boots, It won't be for a while yet though. - Ed

* It should be remembered that all payments for articles 'written' for the Standard are donated to the charity of the player or as it once was the manager's choice.