Mark Noble has had his critics but Slaven Bilic isn’t amongst them – quite the opposite.
Hammer to the core Nobes has become the key player the manager’s squad and Bilic simply won’t hear a word against him.
Speaking ahead of the Chelsea game Bilic said: “He has been very, very important for me. You need the core if your team to be English or British but the captain is the most important.
“I can only spend a certain amount of time with the players but not always in the dressing room where Mark is. It is crucial to have a captain like him. I am lucky with Mark.”
Bilic and his captain are clearly creating a spirit to die for given recent performances from the team and said: “I hope every players hurts personally when things go wrong,”
And he added with no hesitation: “In Mark’s case, it is big-time personal.”
You shouldn’t have bothered Hugh. Some west ham supporters these days, don’t see past running very fastly up the other end with the ball, and kicking it very hardly in the goal.
Work rate and passing ability, being always available and never shirking even when losing, and being a captain in the true sense of the word, don’t enter into it for some.
As for being a real captain, we miss him badly whenever he is injured.
I always want us to have a real captain, not just the best player being named captain, like the foreign teams. How the hell could Beckham captain England from the right wing?
Noble brings order to the team when we lose the ball; he cajoles young / inexperienced players to into position; and he screams at the team when there heads are down to stimulate them into action. He changes direction of the game continuously ( yes with sideways passes like he should do; it’s his job ) and hits plenty of probing through balls.
I know plenty on here have told me that none of this is necessary, but it’s football, as well as running very fastly…
Lmao. The haters will hate that. Especially the ones who think Slaven is the greatest manager ever as clearly he is talking nonesense here! Oh what lovely irony! For what it’s worth I think Slaven is right, Noble ain’t faultless, and perhaps technically Obaing and Kouyate are better but Noble brings so much more to the table. But ultimately you know what? I trust Slavens judgement.
This doesnt change anything at all.
BFS obviously thought No legs was God’s gift to football, so what??? Did that change the reality that Nolegs no good?
lf Kouyate and Obiang were born in Canning Town and were just as British, would Slowmo make it into the team ahead of them?
lf anything Bilic has only confirmed what has been obvious to the unblinkered, that Slowmo is captain and plays ahead of clearly technically superior and more deserving players just because he is a certain nationality, and they are not.
Like Nolan who was never good enough for England, he has never been and will never be anything but distinctly average and that is the indisputed truth. We play better football without him.