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Marko’s penalty may herald end of an era

Marko Arnautovic’s penalty strike yesterday may well have  marked a major turning point in Mark Noble’s Hammers career.

There can be no reason in itself for changing spot kickers given the captain’s excellent strike rate so the question of course is a very simple: “Why?”

The answer seems pretty straightforward and may have been helped by Noble’s substitution on 77 minutes when being replaced by Luis Perez.

The strong word doing the round today follows Manuel Pellegrini’s admission a couple of weeks back that whilst he will remain skipper, Nobes may not necessarily always be playing, is that this may be the start of the process.

With so many options in and around midfield – which for all that remains a worrying area – Noble can no longer be seen as a regular starter.

And it may well be that as a result Pellegrini has decided he must change his penalty taker should there be circumstances in which the captain is not available.

Looking at it realistically, you really do need to consider whether we can afford both Noble and Wilshere at central midfield…or am I being unfair?

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

6 comments on “Marko’s penalty may herald end of an era

  1. I see no problem if he wants to leave him out for Sanchez or Rice, but I see no point in swapping him for Obiang.
    No player is guaranteed a place ( no matter his price in the market ), and at the moment any one can be replaced except Arnie and Fabianski.

  2. Noble is mr reliable. Never misses a game. To his own and the teams detriment sometimes because he even plays when he’s injured. Wouldn’t hurt him to be rested occasionally. As for penalty taking, I would always prefer the main goal scorer to take the penalties, prefereably the striker for a good reason. When the striker isn’t scoring in open play a penalty goal can boost their confidence going into the following game. It also adds to the strikers goal tally for the season, again another confidence booster. Look at Harry Kane, golden boot winner at the World Cup. No one mentions that his goals were mostly penalties.

  3. if the manner in which he jogged back during their first goal yesterday, was instead done by kouyate, people would be laying into him heavily. he’s a nice player, has been a vital part of our midfield over the years, but sadly his time is coming to a very quick end. 10 minutes of sanchez and wilshere yesterday was better imho. same with yarmolenko versus snodgrass.

    sanchez knows his job is simple, intercept, tackle, and give it to either wilshere, yarmolenko or anderson as QUICKLY as possible. noble delays far too long and is not comfortable getting the ball with men around him (wilshere is).

    sorry mark, bench time.

  4. Wiltshire does have excellent passing and vision but if he needs someone to be his legs in midfield then I dont think that he and Nobes can play together

    While he has had a number of disappointing performances, Edi Fernandes is the one player who does have pace and energy

    Hopefully Pelle has a scheme and will surprise us against Arsenal

  5. I feel sorry for Nobes, was surprised he didn’t take the penalty but it was well taken, he has stickability though and has adapted to spells of bad form before, yesterday he was exposed partly because of the system, I think we should against Arsenal have three CDM’s preferrably one who can slot into central defence as and when needed, Oggy if he plays looks better in a back three and it helps compact the space between him and Arthur or allows him to cover Arthur when he goes awol up the wings. I really hope Cressie is fit, Aubameyang and Lacazette are despite results a real handful I think packing the midfield to smother Ozil and Mikitaryans influence is a viable solution, who knows maybe Oxford will be provided the chance to put Ozil in his pocket again ?

  6. Would love to see Oxford given a start and Rice back in too.

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