Just a few days ago we were writing that Mark Noble’s West Ham appearances may have come to an end!
Well that was a bit premature and there is the possibility the captain will be on from the start in our biggest game in a long while when we arrive in Spain on Thursday evening.
For there is still no certainty that Declan Rice will be ready to start following illness although we have reported that he is still slowly recovering.
Either way it’s likely that Nobes will get on, perhaps from the start, possibly as a sub, and his performance at Liverpool showed that he is ready.
He saw a lot of the ball and got those important minutes behind him and will feel confident for a clash against the six time winners following a lengthy lay off ahead of the Anfield game.
Alex Kral has no chance of making it with opinions, shall we say – and putting it as kindly as possible – pretty unanimous that among the various poor buys and loans we have made this one ranks the less than 3 out of 10 category!
We can be assured that Dec will be out there if he feels ANYTHING like himself. If not expect Nobes alongside Manu with Tomas hopefully pushed forward for Bowen should he be unavailable.
Every chance of Nobes playing – arguably more of a risk to play Dec and Jarrod , and Tomas still has a head wound . I would say our biggest fear is a lack of pace defensively through the middle,, so three at the back makes sense.
Moyes has made a lot of mistakes this season and I would say that if he starts Noble against a team like Sevilla it will be the biggest mistake of all. He has no pace and you might as well say goodbye to the Europa League. I doubt even Moyes is that stupid but as I am writing this I am beginning to realise he could be. Moyes would be letting down the team and fans by making such a riducously stupid decision.
So assuming Dec is unavailable what would you do John
He played Manu in with Soucek against Liverpool and he was outstanding, so that is the obvious move, but I really worry what Moyes will do. When Noble came on we lost control of midfield, the amount of times the Liverpool players just rang ny him was embarrissing. I would play Manu and Soucek with Fornals just in front, we played brilliant with the 3 of them and even if Rice is back and is not 100% I would stick with this team. I would also replace Bowen with Benrahma..
Why are you so obsessed with Benrahma? Don’t you watch our games at all?